Spaghetti Sauce Italiano with Thin Spaghetti and Garlic Bread

Buona sera!
i lettori benvenuti di nuovo fedeli (Welcome back faithful readers). Okie, that's all I got. While I'm pretty good with lingo and how to phrase certain things another language is still rusty to me...BUT I am learning. =]
When we last left you and your mouths watering we were knee deep in delish apple maple turkey burgers. This week we decided to jump back into something a bit familiar with our family. An Italian feast is on the menu for tonight's blog entry. Throw on some Dean Martin, grab a nice glass of veno, and kick back to read about this amazing Italian affair.

Normally in our households we relish in Italian cooking, hey it's our heritage and if it ain't broke then why fix it? This time was no exception. While we have our secret family tomato sauce down cold we went down another path. This recipe comes to us from the "Better Homes and Garden's The Ultimate Slow Cooker" book. (Click on the name and it'll take you to it) You read right, slow cooker. No boo's please! Aw, come on slow cookers are amazing! You can get them at Walmart for around $20-$60 and it will become your best food friend on the planet. I love mine and I am no grand chef.

So what went into this grand Italian sauce?

Here's all you need to get you your feast:

Spaghetti sauce Italian
Prep: 25 mins.
Cook: 9 to 10 hours on low OR 4 1/2 to 5 hours on high
Makes: 8 servings

What you'll need:
1 pound lean ground beef
8 ounces bulk Italian sausage
1 28-ounce can diced tomato's, undrained
2 6-ounce cans tomato paste
3 cups sliced fresh mushrooms (8 ounces)
1 cup chopped onion (1 large)
3/4 cup chopped green sweet pepper (1 medium)
1/2 cup dry red wine or water
1/3 cup water
1 2.35-ounce can sliced pitted black olives, drained
2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 gloves garlic, minced
8 cups hot cooked spaghetti (1 pound)
Finely shredded Parmesan cheese (optional)



1. In a large skillet cook ground beef and sausage over medium heat until brown. Drain off fat.

2. Place meat mixture into a 3 1/2 or 4 quart slow cooker. Stir in tomatoes, tomato paste, mushrooms, onion, sweet green pepper, wine (or water), the water, olives, sugar, Worcestershire sauce, salt, chili powder, black pepper, and garlic.

3. Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 9 to 10 hours OR on high-heat setting for 4 1/2 to 5 hours.

4. Serve meat mixture over hot cooked spaghetti. If desired, sprinkle each serving with Parmesan cheese.



Now here's some side notes on how we made ours:
*We cut out the middle man and decided to buy minced garlic to use rather than chop the glove ourselves. If you can only find the clove then that works as well.
*No red wine in ours. While I'm a wino at heart I am only a Arbor Mist/fruity wine girl and somehow blackberry Merlot doesn't sound appetizing in this recipe. Although if you have red wine around and that is your wine of choice then I encourage you use it. Remember the rule of thumb though, never cook with wine you wouldn't drink.
*We used turkey Italian sausage but you can use regular italian sausage to your liking.

Hours went by and it was time to mangia!
So how did this one do? It was a magnifico treat. While I liked it and it was a bit sweeter than I was used to I wasn't a fan of all the meat in it. I'm not a big beef eater but the brilliant thing about this recipe is you add however much of this awesome sauce to however much pasta you like right before you dig on in. While I added more pasta and just a cup full of sauce my husband was happy as can be with all this meat on his plate. Excuse the t-rex that he is, he rarely gets real meat in our house. My Aunt Jane was impressed as well. So plain and simple? If you're looking for a dish to feed an army and isn't too expensive this is the way to go.




Ma's Spot: Once again we created a delicious dinner by using my favorite appliance in my kitchen. Although I have three of them it was time to pull out the big one. I have a few hints for you. I suggest you get Kroger brand chopped pitted olives as well as (as Dinah mentioned above) the minced garlic although I am a big fan of the real stuff minced garlic does the trick sometimes but please remember minced garlic in the jar is alot stronger than fresh. Another hint when you purchase the mushrooms do not buy the sliced ones cause they have a tendency to be brown around the edges. Get the whole mushrooms and get a piece of paper towel to wipe off the mushrooms of any dirt particles because if you rinse them in water it will absorb the water and it could make your dish more watery than intended. Also remember never put hamburger, ground turkey, or any kind of sausage into the slow cooker raw. It's never safe and always cook before layering into the slow cooker. Although chicken & steaks can go in raw without any worries. I enjoyed this sauce very much. The thought of Worcestershire sauce and sugar raised a big question mark with me. I seemed to enjoy it though. It would make my aunt Ann's Italian heart weep. It was my choice to use turkey Italian sausage although I always tell my daughter when you first do a recipe follow it word for word but I had to give my daughter a little lead way since read meat isn't really something she enjoys but the next time I find myself making this I will go back to the original recipe as it stands in the book. Making spaghetti sauce through the years has showed me that there really is no difference between using ground turkey and ground chuck.



That's it bloggers for this week's yummy creation. Join us next week as we dive into a 5 ingredient fix...what's that exactly? Gotta come back to find out!

Spoons and Spatula's,
~Dinah and Ma