Meatsauce Awesomeness Tutorial...


Okay...fine. I'm going to share something that I find interesting with you. No making fun. Martha Stewart wants to be like me in the kitchen. It's true. She just hasn't come right out and said it yet. But, I know she's thinking it.

This will serve approx. 8-12 humans.

Let's start out with my trusty rusty iron skillet. This thing probably weighs in at about 20lbs empty, but if I only had one pan on a deserted island...this would be it.



And now onto the meats! Yes I said meats. If you want to have a more delectable meat sauce you're going to have to pull out the pork. The big hunk-o-meat in the pan is about 1 and 1/2lbs of ground beef. The smaller hunk-o-meat is, believe it or not, a 1lb package of breakfast sausage.



Now you're going to want to combine these two meats together over medium high heat.



Alrighty then. Now that the hunk-o-meats is brownin' up together we can move on to our other ingredients. We've got some dried parsley and basil flakes, a couple small cans of good tomato paste, a big-ole can of diced tomatoes (I used san marzanos for this...a little more pricey than basic but, I'm worth it.), and some fresh cloves of garlic.



Let's get that garlic chopped up shall we? Here's a little tip: to get the garlic cloves out of their protective skins you can give them a good whack with a heavy can or put your knife down flat against one and pop it with your wrist.



This isn't really a mince...a mince is smaller than this I think. This is more of a mance. I'm pretty sure I just made that word up.



Now that my meat mixture has browned up nicely I'm going to add the garlic. I didn't add the garlic while the meat was browning because by the time the meat got cooked through the garlic could have burnt up. Bitter, burnt up garlic isn't good for meatsauce awesomeness.



Depending on what kind of human you are...you're probably going to want to drain some of the excess fat off of the cooked meat. Notice I didn't say drain off all the fat...I get rid of about half of it. Everything in moderation...including moderation. I used a turkey baster thing but, you can just use a spoon if you like wasting time.



Dump em' maters in thar. Mix em' round.



Now let's add the tomato paste, about 4 tablespoons of parsley and 3 tablespoons of basil.



Once this is mixed up it should start to resemble something edible. You'll probably want to turn the heat down to a medium low for some simmering action now.



I'd add about 2 big pinches of salt now...kosher salt would be best. Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper make a difference in cooking. I know, I know...it's so frufru.



After about 15 minutes of simmering away, my meat sauce is starting to get a little thick...like I can turn the pan upside down and nothing would fall out kinda thick. I found this can of generic tomato sauce in the cupboard. I'm going to toss that in there too. Well, not the whole can...just the contents inside it. I think I'll go ahead and add a can of water to it as well...did I mention that this stuff is thick?



Stir it up and add some final touches to taste. Since I didn't have spicy breakfast sausage as I would have preferred, I'm going to add a little extra heat to zing this sauce up a bit. Add some more salt and pepper as you feel necessary and don't be afraid to play around with other spices.



And after another few minutes of simmering your meat sauce should like something like this:



Mmmm...that is some satisfying Meatsauce Awesomeness right there! Pour this sauce over your favorite pasta (linguini would be excellent) or just sip it as if it were a big mug of hot cocoa.

So before we eat, how the heck to I get this pungent garlic stench off of my hands?? Well I can tell you that this soap won't work:



I must have washed my hands with that soap about 23 times during this cooking process (I'm OCD sometimes.) and my hands still smell like garlic. Luckily I know a secret weapon when it comes to removing garlic stench...any stench really. COFFEE BEANS!!



Grab a small handful of these babies and start rubbing them around between your hands. Toss them after about 30 seconds and wash your hands. Go ahead, give em' a smell...no garlic, no coffee...just the sweet smell of your favorite hand soap. A mystery if you ask me.

Well I hope you learned something. Let me know if you tried this meat sauce out and if it lived up to the awesomeness that was bestowed upon it. This meat sauce is a great meat layer for any homemade lasagna as well.

Good eating.

4 waggish utterances thus far...:

Donna said...

Found your site by way of Ree in Dallas. Really love the coffee bean trick!! And your chicken recipe looks great! I have some recipes on my blog, but never think about doing the step-by-step with the camera till it's too late! lol Have a fun day.

Anonymous said...

Wow this looks good!! I'm totally trying this out tonight. I never thought to use actual sassage in my sauce before! ('sassage', by the way...is the correct pronunciation of sausage when you live in the Chicago area...)
I also came upon your site via Pioneer Woman. I love your writing style; very humorous :)

Bree Wilder said...

DELISH! I made this tonight and it was SO good! Found you through PW!

Molly said...

Another way to get the garlic and onion smell off your hands is to rub them with stainless steel. Just take a regular old kitchen knife and rub away.