Le Sauce

I have been making red sauce at home for years. I originally used a recipe from Lizzy's mom Nance and it is delicious. Over the years I've tried other versions and have been making my own hybrid for quite some time. After a nice soul drenching sweat at Down Dog Yoga I came home and polished off some left-overs from last night and thought to myself, maybe others would like to make this delicious sauce for their pasta too.  So here it is my current adaptation of red sauce and meatballs. The key is the quality of the tomatoes, the better the quality the better the sauce. My mom has a beautiful garden and each summer she cans her own tomatoes this would be the ideal tomato source however jars of tomatoes do not travel well and usually I have to resort to purchasing canned tomatoes at the store. Someday maybe I will have a big beautiful garden where I can grow enough tomatoes to make sauce.

Sauce:
3- 28 oz cans whole tomatoes (the ingredients on the can should be tomatoes only.)
2 cans tomato paste (make sure it doesn't have high-fructose corn syrup some stores sell brands with HFCS which is just gross)
4 cloves garlic minced
1 onion diced
2 carrots diced
1 cup mushrooms diced
1 green pepper diced
olive oil
kosher salt
pepper
red pepper flakes
fresh basil cut into thin strips
fresh thyme

Meatballs
1 lb grass-fed beef (I usually use 90% lean)
1/4 onion minced
2 cloves garlic minced
parmesan reggiano cheese to be grated
1/4 cup Panko bread crumbs
1 egg


Start with the sauce. Place a large sturdy stock pot on medium heat. Drizzle some olive oil (about one turn of the pan) and then throw in the onions, garlic, green pepper, mushrooms and carrots. Saute for about 5-10 minutes careful not to let the veggies get too browned. While your veggies are sauteing use a blender or a food processor to blend the whole tomatoes. Add the pureed tomatoes, tomato paste to the vegetables. Add a good 2 tsp of kosher salt and pepper and red pepper flakes to taste. Cover and let simmer for 15 minutes. Add fresh basil, thyme and adjust seasoning to taste. Let simmer for 30 minutes or longer to allow for the flavors to fully develop.

Now for the meatballs. Mix together the diced onion and garlic with the grass-fed beef. Add one egg and  the bread crumbs, continue to mix. I find my hands work best. Then add some grated parmesan as much or as little as you'd like. There are two options for cooking the meatballs first you could fry then up in some oil on the stove, medium heat until cooked through turning often. Or bake them in the oven at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes, check doneness and continue cooking until cooked through.

Once done toss with some pasta, throw in a little fresh basil and pass that parmesan around the table.

Enjoy!

Cooking together!