By Early August. The apartment’s freezer has been getting filled methodically across the past three weekends — the kind of stocking-the-freezer project that a working couple in a new apartment with two-incomes-and-no-kids does when the schedule is steady and the meal-prep is the small Sunday project. Mama had been doing the same thing in her own kitchen across the years when I was growing up. I had inherited the habit without thinking about it.
Sunday I made zippy spaghetti sauce because the dish is the kind of large-batch tomato-and-Italian-sausage sauce that holds for months in the freezer in single-meal portions and that can be the base for ten different weeknight pasta dinners or stuffed-pepper-fillings or chili-bases or breakfast-egg-bake-bottoms. The dish takes about two hours of simmer time and yields about ten cups of finished sauce.
The procedure: brown a pound of Italian sausage in a Dutch oven, breaking it up. Add four diced garlic cloves and a chopped onion, sweat five minutes. Add two cans of crushed San Marzano tomatoes, a small can of tomato paste, a half-cup of beef broth, two teaspoons of brown sugar, a teaspoon each of red pepper flakes, dried oregano, dried basil. Simmer covered two hours, stirring occasionally. Finish with a splash of red wine vinegar off the heat to brighten. Cool, portion into ten 1-cup freezer-safe containers, label, freeze. The freezer now has ten portions of zippy spaghetti sauce alongside the eight portions of marinara I made two weeks ago and the four chicken-pot-pie filling portions from last weekend.
Mama’s Wednesday call was the small mid-week anchor. She talked through the cafe’s small breakfast-and-lunch numbers, the small Cody-news, the small Aunt-Linda update. The cafe is in its small steady-state rhythm. Cody is at the small operational-lead for the lunch-and-dinner rotation. Mama is on the small breakfast-and-brunch shifts. The small Sapulpa-cafe-life continues the way it has been continuing for years.
The technique-detail I always lean on: the rest at room temperature for at least twenty minutes before the small final cooking step. The rest gives the small protein-or-dough time to relax into its small final-form. Skip the rest and the texture goes wrong. Honor the rest and the texture honors you back.
Zippy Spaghetti Sauce
Prep Time: 5 min | Cook Time: 25 min | Total Time: 30 min | Servings: 6
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef (or Italian sausage)
- 1 small yellow onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 (24 oz) jar marinara or crushed tomato sauce
- 1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, undrained
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes (adjust to taste)
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- 1 lb spaghetti, cooked according to package directions
- Parmesan cheese, for serving (optional)
Instructions
- Brown the meat. In a large skillet or saucepan over medium-high heat, cook the ground beef and diced onion together, breaking the meat into crumbles, until no pink remains — about 7 to 8 minutes. Drain excess fat.
- Add garlic. Stir in the minced garlic and cook for 1 minute until fragrant.
- Build the sauce. Pour in the jarred marinara and the diced tomatoes. Stir in the red pepper flakes, Italian seasoning, sugar, salt, and pepper.
- Simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low and let the sauce simmer uncovered for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened and the flavors meld.
- Serve. Spoon over cooked spaghetti and top with Parmesan if you have it. Eat while it’s hot, even if that means standing at the counter.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 420 | Protein: 24g | Fat: 12g | Carbs: 54g | Fiber: 4g | Sodium: 620mg