You may be thinking, nope. No way. Spaghetti takes time, Emilee. The sauce has to cook for at least 4 hours. No way I can do that on a weeknight! Well, we’re not using fresh tomatoes, so there’s no need to worry about cooking off the acidity. The main ingredient to this simple (but delicious) sauce is crushed tomatoes. I prefer Cento, but you can use whichever brand you like.
There’s nothing quite like a big ole’ bowl of spaghetti to warm the soul. Italian sausage is one of God’s gifts to us, and I use it as often as I can without completely blowing the recommended fat intake for my day. It’s almost always the base to my meat sauce, but you can of course sub in ground beef, ground turkey, or use nothing at all! This sauce happily stands alone, so you do you, boo.
Top Left: Look at all those good bits! I keep those in the pan.
Top Right: This is the deglazing process - this is when all those good bits get incorporated into the sauce.
Bottom Left: Fresh basil, oregano, salt and sugar go in!
Bottom Right: The drool-worthy finished product that is about to be spooned LIBERALLY over a giant bowl of pasta.
Other important things to remember are to use fresh garlic, basil, and good parm. Gotta have that beautiful grated cheese on top!
Ingredients
1 lb ground Italian sausage
2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, diced finely
4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tsp sugar
1 handful fresh basil
½ cup freshly grated parmigiano reggiano
16 oz (1 box) of spaghetti
Kosher salt
Black pepper
Method
Set a large pot of salted water to boil. In terms of saltiness, make it like the ocean. A pinch will not do. When it does boil, put your pasta in and boil until al dente. After reserving 2 cups of the pasta water, drain it.
While the pasta boils, cook your Italian sausage on medium in a large pan or dutch oven, until cooked through, 8-10 minutes. When the meat is cooked, remove from the pan, and drain the grease. You don’t need to wipe the pan clean--you can leave some of the grease in the pan, and there will probably be some pieces of meat at the bottom of the pan. Those are good!
Once the sausage is removed from the pan, add the olive oil, and saute the onions on medium until translucent, about 5 minutes. Salt the onions. (probably 1/2 tsp)Then, add in the minced garlic and tomato paste. Saute together for another 5 minutes. After five minutes, add in about half a cup of the reserved pasta water to deglaze the pan.
Then, add in the can of crushed tomatoes and another cup of your reserved pasta water. Bring it to a simmer, and then add in the sausage, sugar, basil, and oregano. Salt to taste, and let it simmer together for another 15 minutes.
Serve it with your pasta and top with lots of freshly grated cheese. :)
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