I was going to post about this yesterday but I lost both my SD cards somehow and I was VERY sad and thus unable to take any pictures of my food. But alas, in the mess that was my tiny room, I was able to locate my teeny tiny SD card. SUCCESS! But allow me to tell you about my personal experience with spaghetti.
Growing up, I mostly ate the most delicious Vietnamese food ever (love ya, Mom!). I rarely brought sandwiches to school, because sandwiches are dry and icky. My mom used to make me stir-fried rice, noodles, gaww my mouth is watering just thinking of it. Anyway. I was always kind of turned off by typical North America food (this includes but is not limited to hamburgers, pasta, chicken breast, steak, potatoes in any shape/form, etc.). My dad is kind of a vacuum when it comes to food, he doesn’t care too much what it tastes like, so my mom use to make HUGE batches of spaghetti and just store it in containers for us to eat for like a week and a half.
I think this may be why I go through “phases” of food. In case you have no idea what I’m talking about, sometimes I go through certain “phases” of food. I’ve just come off of a Mexican food phase (flashback to constant need for beans, guacamole, and burritos), and I’m semi-through a Vietnamese food phase. But I’m never really over my Viet food phase. It’s constant.
But I digress.
I was really sick of spaghetti, but I think it was because I mostly had that Prego sauce or Ragu. I decided to give my own spaghetti sauce a try and I think I did pretty well (I usually gage by Chris’ reaction. Seconds = Good. Thirds = Very good. Fourths = zOMG)
He only went for seconds on this one (I made chili once, and he went for 4 helpings XD).
(This makes about 5L or so. Maybe more. I didn’t really measure.)
Ingredients:
- 3 medium-large sized onions, diced
- 3-4 tbsp olive oil
- 15-20 cremini and/or white mushrooms. I used a mix of both
- 2 packages of lean ground beef (I don’t know how much in weight. About $10 worth?)
- 2 cans of diced tomatoes (or use real tomatoes. I didn’t have time to cut them all)
- 1 5.5 oz (small) can of tomato paste
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
- 2 green bell peppers, diced
- 1 jalapeño pepper, finely chopped (with seeds)
- 3-4 tbsp of italian herbs (oregano, basil, rosemary, etc.)
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- Salt to taste (I might have used about 2-3 tsps, I’m not sure. Taste test and adjust)
- 4-5 dashes of tabasco sauce
- Shredded Romano cheese to garnish
- In a large pot, cook the diced onions and olive oil until the onions get kind of transparent. About 3-5 minutes over medium heat (between 5 and 6).
- Add the mushrooms and cook until the mushrooms look less raw and more cooked. Another 3-5 minutes. Stir frequently.
- Add the lean ground beef and cook until a nice, delicious brown colour. This will give it yummy flavour. This might take about 10-15 minutes to cook all your meat.
- Add the diced tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic, green peppers and jalapeño. Mix until incorporated.
- Start adding some herbs. Add about 1 tbsp of the italian herbs, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1 tsp pepper. Once the mixture is simmering, do a taste test. Simmer over medium heat (4-5) until the sauce looks more like one concoction instead of an amalgamated pot of tomatoes, veggies and beef.
- Frequently stir taste test over the next 30 minutes to add herbs and spices until it tickles your fancy.
- Once it looks like spaghetti sauce and not individual ingredients, boil yourself some pasta. Generously pour the sauce over your noodles and sprinkle with Romano cheese.
- My favourite step: OM. NOM. NOM. =)
