Calling foodies: spaghetti sauce

[celticdragonfly]

So I've been reading various things in one of my email lists on the Eeeevils of high fructose corn syrup. I'd been thinking for some time it was NOT a good thing, this is a large part of why I canned my own strawberry jam for the family. The more I have been reading the more I'd like to get less of it in our diets. Not that I'm going to go on a diet as such - sounds like you can get a lot of benefit just getting away from the HFCS and onto more regular sugar.

So thinking of various and sundry foods that have a lot in it, and one of the things I was thinking of tonight is that I've been wanting for some time to make my own spaghetti sauce. Usually for us spaghetti means the stuff out of the jar, cook ground beef and add it, maybe a little merlot, handful of minced onion, some minced garlic if I have it. Really, that simple.

I would like to get away from the stuff out of the jar. So I want to get recommendations for what to make, proportions and such. Tomato sauce, tomato paste, etc., it's all a blur to me. It has to be SIMPLE. No, really, I know some of the foodies on my list, simpler than that. (I'm here because I've already rejected the stuff in the traditional cookbooks I've been given as overcomplex) We don't care for chunks-o-tomato, and Karl won't eat mushrooms, sigh. I'm wondering if we're going to need to add sugar so that it will taste right to us, since there IS so much HFCS in the stuff-outa-the-jar. Perhaps that's something I could slowly tone down over time.

My concern with doing it with the cans-o-tomato-whatever is that I also hear a lot of complains about "commercially canned veggies have way way too much salt!" But I really don't know if I want to learn to can my own tomato-sauce. From what kattelyn told me, it sounds like I'd need BUSHELS of tomatos for a few pints. Yeek.

Comments

[prodigal.livejournal.com]

Here's the really simple version of my sauce:

Two pounds of lean beef (ground sirloin is my usual choice, although last time I had them take two pounds of London Broil and grind it up for me, but the 90% lean ground beef will also work.)
One clove garlic, chopped
One white onion, chopped
One can of tomato paste (I always get the kind with garlic in it)
Two cans of tomato sauce (I usually get the kind that says "With Italian Spices")
One Tablespoon of Molasses
Lots of wine

Once the garlic and onion are chopped, sautee them in your largest skillet in an excessive amount of olive oil - somewhere between half again to twice the amount you really need.
Once the garlic and onion are properly sauteed, remove them from the skillet and put them in a bowl to the side.
Put the meat in the heated olive oil (which will be infused with the flavor of the garlic and onion,) and pour about a third of the bottle of wine over it.
Turn the burner to its highest setting, and stir the meat while the wine and oil reduce away - once you have have almost no liquid in the pan, you're ready to move on to the next step.
Add the tomato paste and tomato sauce to the meat.
Fill the tomato paste can just a bit below the top with wine, and swish it around a bit to dissolve some of the paste stuck to the side of the can into the wine. Transfer the wine to one of the cans of tomato sauce and swich the wine around to dissolve all the sauce stuck to its sides into teh wine, and then repeat with the other can of tomato sauce. Once that's done, pour the wine from the sauce can onto the meat.
Add the garlic and onions to the meat, paste and sauce.
Pour more wine on top of all of that, and stir until it's all mixed up.
Once that has become thoroughly mixed together, add the molasses, and lower to medium heat.

You'll want to customise that a bit, but I think if you try this you'll like it. I call it my Jazz Combo Sauce, because I always use whatever spices catch my fancy while I'm rummaging through the cabinet.

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

So you never actually drain the meat after cooking it?

[prodigal.livejournal.com]

No, you've cooked away what grease was produced by the time that you're ready to start adding everything else to the mix. That's why you cook it at the highest temperature, and use really lean beef.