My Favorite Spaghetti Sauce

Here’s one of my favorite dishes to make for a variety of reasons; spaghetti. Our daughters call it, “pasgetti” but they know what it is and they love it. It's easy, smells and tastes wonderful, and all of our family loves "Hank's Spaghetti."

I used to work offshore and I’d come home and surprise my brother by making it. He always called it, “Hank Spaghetti.” It was hot with a lot of cayenne and Tabasco. Now it’s a lot more refined, has a lot more flavor, and isn’t spicy hot. It’s rich and flavorful and goes terrific with wine. So let’s begin (I’m hungry already)!

Pick your noodles and put them on the side. Won’t need them for a while. It’s time to dive in to making a killer sauce that’ll be wonderful. I try to use mostly fresh ingredients but I fail when it comes to the base.

Roma tomatoes

Shallots

Mushrooms

Bell Peppers

Butter (REAL butter, not margarine)

Wine (red of choice)

Garlic

Spices (to be discussed below)

Ground beef and sausage

Tabasco sauce

Get a big sauce pot and stick on the stove. Take a couple cans of tomato puree or paste and dump in there. Everything else will be fresh. Find 4 decent sized roma tomatoes and dice. I like romas because they have a little less seeds and hint more flavor. Couple bunches of shallots and dice them and toss in. Take a bunch of fresh mushrooms and clean them off. Remove the stem and slice up and then again to make them a little smaller. Put them in. Take some bell peppers, color doesn't matter, remove the ribs, coarse dice and in they go. Take ½ stick of butter, not margarine, and put in there. Add one cup of milk (anything but skim) and stir in. I shy away from water because the water thins the sauce and doesn’t allow it to be very rich.

Let’s get some meat, shall we? Find a good 1 lb package of sage sausage. Take that and a 1 lb package of ground beef. Throw in some garlic salt and onion flakes, dash some Tabasco on it, and strain after browning. Add it to the mix.

Take some fresh garlic and crush the cloves and mince up. 2 or 3 tablespoons will do nicely. Stir it all together and you have “tomato mush.” To make it in to a better sauce we now need to choose a wine and spices.

I like a healthy, spicy cabernet in my sauces. The flavors of the wine help to bring out the richness of the fresh veggies as well as the meats. They all compliment each other very well. The drier and spicier the wine, the better. I end up pouring in about ½ bottle of the wine and reserving the rest either to thin it up a little later or for drinking. I don’t have a “cooking wine” I use. When I put wine in a sauce it’s one that I’d normally drink because I like the flavor.

For spices I like a lot as they too enhance the flavors. Sage, oregano, basil, salt, thyme, garlic salt, even a little rosemary works well. I like all my spices to be fresh as they make so much difference. Don’t skimp on them. If you can see the individual spices, you’ve got enough. A dash here and dash there won’t flavor things too well. A pinch of black pepper, a couple teaspoons of Tabasco sauce and stir it all up.

Bring to a slow boil and then back down to simmer. Let the sauce cook so the vegetables cook down and meld in to the sauce for a couple hours. The sauce should be a dark ruby red and you should be able to smell the wine and spices you put in. the tomatoes cook down nicely and the mushrooms have soaked up the wine and other spices. The flavors of the meats mix terrific with the darkened veggies and enhance the flavor or the rich wine sauce. Salt to taste if you need it.

Serve over warm pasta with the remainder of the wine you used in the sauce. Enjoy!