Try this SLOW COOKED MEAT SAUCE recipe, or contribute your own.
- 1 cup milk
- 2 lbs ground beef
- 1 pinch red pepper flakes
- 1 cup celery chopped
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 lb ground veal
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 6 cloves garlic minced
- 1 cup carrots chopped
- 2 onions, diced
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 1 cup mushrooms chopped
- tbsp oil
- 1 lb ground pork
- 1 14 oz can of tomato paste
- 2 28 oz. cans whole tomatoes i like the cento san marzano tomatoes
- 1 + cups of chicken stock
- 1 tbsp pizza seasoning if you have it (just adds somethin
- 1 bunch basil chopped
- Carbohydrate 3.97144056577521 g
- Cholesterol 138.477711002029 mg
- Fat 20.6701938695172 g
- Fiber 0.738217728967213 g
- Protein 35.8333085045655 g
- Saturated Fat 8.32659052876857 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (233g)
- Sodium 504.236861400715 mg
- Sugar 3.23322283680799 g
- Trans Fat 2.91991731602267 g
- Calories 354 calories
Step-by-step
- Heat the oil in a large heavy bottomed pot. I love my big Le Creuset pot . Add in carrots, celery, and half the onions.
- Sprinkle a little pinch of salt and pepper, we are building flavors here. Saute for a couple minutes, just working on softening, then add the mushrooms and continue sauteing till everything is soft, we aren't looking for color. This is the healthy veggies that we are sneaking in under the radar!
- Once softened, place in the blender and add the 2 cans of tomatoes, juices and all, and blend till smooth.
- In the pot, if needed add a bit of oil, or to really keep it healthy a bit of the chicken stock and add the second half of the onions. Again a bit of salt to help that softening process. Cook for about 2 minutes then add the minced garlic all at medium high heat. Don't let your garlic burn, my rule of thumb is when you start smelling it, time to move on!
- So now add all the meat and break it up with your wooden spoon or spatula. Continue cooking, moving it around often so as to evenly cook, till the meat is completely browned. Now at this point you can pour off the accumulated fat. Personally this is not what I do, I feel like there is a lot of flavor that you can lose from the juices.
- Add the cup of milk, stir well and reduce the heat to low. The milk contains lactic acid which serve to soften the meat even more. And heating at low allows the milk and juices you left to slowly absorb into the meat.
- Add the can of tomato paste and let it melt into the meat and cook into it a bit.
- Now you can add the blended tomato sauce, cup of chicken stock, and the spices, except for the basil.
- Stir well to make sure everything is incorporated. Heat to bubbly and then turn down the heat to low, give one good stir and put the pot lid on, but with a corner exposed. You don't want it covered, you are just trying to protect from splatter.
- Simmer for 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally to make sure the sauce is not sticking to the bottom. you expect the sauce to thicken but if you think it is getting too thick, feel free to add some more chicken stock or water, 1/4 cup at a time. You don't want at watery sauce, it should be more of a gravy consistency.
- At the end (and I say at the end because it isn't till that point that all the flavors have had the opportunity to meld and develop fully) I taste and adjust my seasonings.
- Tomatoes, even canned ones, can be sweeter or tarter at different times of the year so sometimes I will add an additional bit of tomato paste to pump up the tomatoey goodness, other times, it's salt and others, sugar is needed.
- Once you are happy with the overall taste, toss in the fresh basil leaves and bring the heat up to medium so that the sauce will be at serving temperature and then serve over your favorite pasta, sprinkle with Parmesan and ENJOY!!!
Adding milk to ground meats before simmering is not a stylistic choice, but a chemical intervention; the lactic acid breaks down tough muscle fibers over hours of low heat, resulting in a remarkably tender texture. When rendering three pounds of mixed beef, veal, and pork, browning the protein thoroughly creates the fond necessary for deep savory notes, while leaving rendered fat in the pot retains essential moisture throughout a multi-hour simmer. Softening carrots, celery, and onions in oil before blending them into the whole tomatoes introduces natural starches that thicken the sauce without relying on heavy roux or paste alone.
Maintaining a steady low heat prevents scorching as the starches and tomato solids reduce over two to three hours. Covering the heavy-bottomed pot partially with a lid protects the stovetop from splatters while permitting sufficient evaporation to concentrate the flavors into a thick, clinging consistency rather than a watery broth. Should the mixture tighten too quickly during this reduction phase, incremental additions of chicken stock restore the proper fluidity without diluting the overall profile.
Delaying the addition of fresh basil until the very end preserves the volatile aromatic compounds that heat rapidly destroys during long cooking cycles. This same final window is optimal for adjusting the balance of acidity and sweetness, since canned tomatoes vary widely in sugar content depending on their harvest and packing date. Tasting the sauce only after the flavors have fully melded ensures that any corrective pinches of salt or sugar hit their precise mark.
Preparing this volume yields roughly ten portions, making it exceptionally well suited for scaling down by half or doubling for large gatherings without altering the core cooking method. When reducing the recipe for smaller households, use a narrower heavy-bottomed pot to maintain the same liquid surface-area ratio and prevent premature evaporation. Conversely, expanding the batch simply requires a wider vessel to ensure the meats brown evenly rather than steam in their own juices.
