My Famous Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

Everyone always asks me to make my spaghetti sauce. Its Carl's favorite dinner I make. Im not really sure where I came up with this recipe. Spaghetti sauce was one of the first things I set out to perfect when I started cooking in my early 20's. So now Im going to attempt to write out all the ingredients I use. I change it up all the time based on what I have on hand though. You can add other veggies, or just use ground beef and no sausage. I will write it up exactly how I am making it today.

1 lb ground beef

1 lb ground italian sausage

1 large onion

1 large bell pepper

2 zucchini

1 container of sliced mushrooms

2 cans (14.5oz) diced tomatoes

2 cans (29oz) tomato sauce

1/2 cup red wine

4 cloves of garlic, crushed

2Tbsp dried basil

2 bay leaves

1Tbsp sugar

fresh ground pepper

While the meat is browning, chop up all the veggies. When the meat is browned, add the cans of tomatos and tomato sauce. Then add all the chopped veggies and stir to get it all mixed up. The sauce will be really thick and chunky but dont worry, it will all cook down.

Now add the garlic, basil and bay leaves and sugar and wine. Season with some fresh ground pepper. Dont add any salt yet. I always wait until the very end to salt the sauce as alot of times it just naturally salty enough and you may not even need it. Now the fun part...let it simmer at least 2 hrs...more if you have the time. Sometimes when I dont have time to stay home and let the sauce simmer, I will brown the beef and then pour all the ingredients in the crock pot and let it simmer in the crock pot all day. Then in the last 30 minutes or so I will take off the lid and let it simmer without the lid so it can thicken up a bit.

This will make a large batch of sauce. I like to use it for spaghetti dinner, then have some leftovers in the fridge. I also will freeze half of the sauce for another night when I need a quick easy meal.