Today my dad made his famous meat sauce for pasta and I discovered something ‘new.’ I’ll share my ‘secret’ at the end of this post. It’s famous because every time my dad make a big pot, he shares it with my aunt (that doesn’t cook). Or sometimes, she’ll hint and or ask me ‘next time your dad makes it, save me some ;].’

There is no exact recipe and portions but the main ingredients are button mushrooms, ground beef, onions, Italian seasoning, tomato sauce and green peppers.

Slice the mushrooms, about 1/2 cm thick. Roughly and eyeball it, doesn’t have to be accurate as the mushrooms will shrink when cooked.

Dice the onion into cubes.

My dad likes to use Ragu brand of tomato sauce, it’s a bit thicker than most sauces. But any sauce or home made sauce will work, it just saves the cooking and boiling off water time.

Ground beef, or any meat preferred would work as well.

Caramelize the onions with a splash of oil. The key to this is making sure the pot/ pan is really hot. You want that ‘sizzling’ sound when you place the onions in. After the onions have been cooking for a while (until soft) , remove from heat.

Using the same pot, cook the mushrooms until soften. Mushrooms have lots of water, so you can drain the water or let the water evaporate. And remove from heat.

Using the same pot, cook the ground beef through. There will be water from the beef. My dad saved the beef stock for later.

Once the beef is browned and fully cooked, all the onions and mushrooms. Pour the tomato sauce in. There will be some sauce left in the jars. Pour the beef stock into the jars and shake until there is no more sauce stuck to the sides of the jar. Pour the liquid in the sauce. Add the seasoning and stir well. Let it come to a boil and turn off the heat. For more tasty sauce, let it sit for at least half a day, to let the ingredients soak the flavours.

Obviously my dad forgot to buy green peppers. So he just sautéed the diced peppers and threw it in with the finished sauce.

This makes a great lunch with some pasta.

P.S. I had pizza for lunch today and used this sauce as my tomato sauce for pizzas. IT WAS AMAZING. If you ever try to make pizza, and have some of the sauce (from above) lying around, I would recommend using it. It was very delicious! : )