Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Classic spaghetti

Mom asked for spaghetti and I gave it to her. Tonight's spaghetti dinner was another recipe from my slow-cooker cookbook my friend gave me and it was another good one. Of course just using sauce from a can would be faster but if you have time and want to "sophisticate" it a bit, this is the way to go. I suppose there's also something a little psychological about the healthiness of making the sauce from fresh ingredients compared to just opening a can.



Review: This recipe wasn't difficult it was just a little more time consuming because it involved slicing a few vegetables and cooking meat. To be honest, the recipe is a two-for-one because you also could make it for a hearty beef stew and eat it without spaghetti. It calls for adding mushrooms and celery but I don't like either one of those so I left them out. I also left out the stewed tomatoes because I'm not a fan of whole tomatoes and didn't want to have to bite into one (sauce, salsa and ketchup are fine for me but not whole tomatoes). For me, personally, I like a thicker spaghetti sauce and this was more runny (think Ragu instead of Prego), but it was still quite good.

Recipe:

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 onions, chopped (I actually used one because two would have been a lot)
  • 2 green bell peppers, sliced
  • 2 stalks celery, sliced
  • 4 teaspoons minced garlic
  • 3 pounds lean ground beef
  • 2 carrots, diced
  • 1 cup mushrooms, diced
  • 1 can (28 ounces) tomato sauce
  • 3 cups water
  • 1 can (28 ounces) stewed tomatoes, undrained
  • 2 tablespoons minced parsley
  • 1 tablespoon dried oregano
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 2 teaspoons salt
  • 2 teaspoons black pepper
  • 1 pound dry spaghetti

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add onions, bell peppers, celery and garlic. Cook and stir until tender then transfer to the CROCK-POT slow cooker. In the same skillet, brown the ground beef then drain and discard the fat. Add the beef, carrots, mushrooms, tomato sauce, water, tomatoes with juice, parsley, oregano, sugar, salt and black pepper to the CROCK-POT. Cover and cook on LOW 6 to 8 hours or on HIGH 3 to 5 hours, or until done.

Cook the spaghetti according to package directions and drain the water. Serve the sauce over the cooked spaghetti.

If you want to add garlic bread with it I typically preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, butter slices of bread, sprinkle garlic powder on them and stick them in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes.

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