Sunday, December 6, 2009

Spaghetti Sauce Italiano



It's freeze it and forget it night. Two recipes, made mostly concurrently, that can both be hauled out of the freezer on a night when I'm too tired to cook.

Well, my spaghetti sauce in the slow cooker just finished bubbling away for the last 4 hours. I'm still full from the Garbanzo Bean Stew to sample much of the spaghetti sauce, but the bit that I did burn my mouth on was nice and flavourful, mostly tomato-y.

I could have made this recipe easier for myself if I hadn't suddenly decided to make it today, and subsequently had to work with minimally thawed ground beef. I also had to run to the grocery store for more tomato paste so now I've got an extra on hand for the future. I had everything else on hand save for the gross green pepper which will never live here if I have a say in the matter. We're not friends. By using the ground beef that I already had on hand, I've now got a little extra room in the deep freeze for my just-cooked recipes. Either them or sprinkle donuts, hmmm....

I didn't do much to this recipe if you don't count not technically mincing the garlic because I was too lazy to scrape it out of the mincer thing and then wash it. Instead, I smashed the garlic with the flat side of the big metal knife, then chopped it up really small. Same effect, if you ask me. Makes a sticky garlic mess either way. I didn't have the two cans of diced tomatoes on hand so I used a 28 oz can of diced tomatoes. I figure a 1 or 2 oz difference will not matter. Luckily, as I was draining the first can of mushrooms, I happened to look at the size of it (8oz) which saved me having to open the second one. These recipe people must shop in the teeniest grocery store. All their can sizes seem really small. I used a jazzy tomato paste that had garlic and herbs in it because I do like garlic, especially in Italian food recipes.

Other than having to wildly hack apart the mostly frozen meat as it cooked, the rest of the recipe was easy. Just throw it in the slow cooker and check it in 4 hours. That is, if you're not trying to make another recipe at the same time while talking on the phone and trying to answer the door...

Now I have something yummy to look forward to for dinner tomorrow. I love spaghetti!


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