King of Italian Meat Sauces

You an cook the sauce the night before if you like and then warm it up or keep it in the crock pot. Each day it gets better. ~Geri

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups onion, chopped
• 1lb or less of extra lean ground beef and/or bulk Italian sausage - cook first then chop to sizes you like
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 (14.5oz) cans Italian-style stewed tomatoes with Oregano & Basil. (Stewed tomatoes can be rather large in size so when I put them into the pan I squish them with a potato masher to make the size I like (up to you)
• 1 (6oz) can tomato paste (I use maybe 1/2 can more - depends on how thick you like it, you can always thin it down with water or wine)
• 1/4 cup parley, chopped (I use dry and don't always buy fresh)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/8 tsp black pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano, crushed
• 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 cups water

Directions

• Combine onion, meat and garlic in a Dutch over and cook until meat is brown and onion is tender (**we cook any sausage in a separate pan and then add to the already browned onion and garlic**). Drain off any fat. Add remaining ingredients. Simmer, uncovered, until sauce has thickened, about 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
• Remove bay leaves. Serve over hot linguine and top with Parmesan if desired.

Serves 6 - 8

Clicke HERE for a printable version