by tacocat

Were there grubski rules at one point? Anyway...

I'm some kinda Italian. A small amount. I suck at math and couldn't do the dilution ratio if I wanted to. But I have recent Italian immigrant ancestors so mom my makes a mean red sauce. I gave some to my boss once and he licked his plate when he was done because he liked it so much. Not to overhype the product.

2 – 3 TBSP Olive Oil

1 lb. Ground Beef

Optional – Italian Sausage Mild or Hot – These should cooked in a separate skillet

1 Yellow or Sweet Onion – diced

4 Cloves Garlic – diced

1 Can Tomato Paste- I like Contadina brand

2 28oz. Cans crushed Tomatoes – Like Hunts, Cento or any Italian brands. I use San Marzano tomatoes

   When I can find them they are usually whole and I chop them or smash.  Lots more work but good.
   If you find crushed San Marzano that is the ones I would buy but they are not always available.

½ Tsp Salt

½ Tsp Pepper

2 Tsp Sugar

½ Tsp Baking Soda

2 TBSP Oregano

2 TBSP Basil

2 Whole Garlic Cloves

I just ctrl-v' d that from my mom's email. She just throws stuff in so I never thought I could make it but it was pretty easy.

That's about everything. I took sugar packets from Starbucks because Target ran out of sugar somehow.

Browning meat and sautéing onions in it. There's some olive oil in there too. Honestly beef is probably better but the girlfriend likes ground turkey and it's not that important in the end. I'm going to make it with ground Italian sausage at some point because I'm crazy as fuck.

I didn't take a picture, but after the meat is browned, scoot some aside and cook the diced garlic in the fat for a minute. If you burn it, the garlic is supposed to taste funky.

Not sauce yet. (I took some random fucking pictures...)

Well there's the sugar I swiped.

My mom adds baking soda to lower the acidity because she paid attention in chemistry class.

Meh. It's sauce now. Drop a couple whole garlic cloves in there at the end. They'll show up on someone's plate eventually. My mom told my grandpa (her father-in-law) that whoever got the garlic clove would have good luck. Because he was a gullible moron and I think he called her a Protestant whore a few times.

Here's detailed instructions from the moms:

Med sauce pan over med heat lightly brown burger. Add onion cook until clear push meat a side add diced garlic to the oil cook lightly for a minute or so to release flavor. If add sausage steam in a separate pan or skillet until completely cooked through about 45 min. these won’t be add until the end. Add tomato paste using the can fill ¾ full with water and add to mixture. Stirring constantly mix thoroughly. Stir in crushed tomatoes juice and all blend well. Add salt, pepper, sugar and baking soda. Stir. Add remaining seasonings and whole garlic cloves. Bring to a rapid boil and then reduce heat. Let simmer for at least 1 ½ hrs , can simmer for 2 – 3 hours. Add your sausage at any point chopped or whole just make sure it is totally covered in the sauce.

The sausage thing is kind of an afterthought. We either chop it up and use it like meatballs or have sausage with leftover as their own thing.

My mom spends a lot of time cutting whole canned tomatoes when she does it. I'm not a whole tomato fan so I skipped 'em.

I have no idea why she has such strong opinions on canned tomatoes but I have strong opinions on typefaces that are best kept to myself unless I'm talking to a designer with good taste. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯