Original video by @BrianLagerstrom — all credit to the creator.
Mom's 30-Minute Spaghetti and Meat Sauce
A rich, quick-simmered meat sauce built on browned beef and hot Italian sausage, deepened with toasted tomato paste and beef bouillon. It tastes like it cooked all afternoon but comes together in about half an hour.
Ingredients
- 1 lb80/20 ground chuck · 450g
- 8 ozhot Italian pork sausage · 225g; approx. 2 links, casings removed
- 200 gonion · 1 medium-large, medium diced
- 20 ggarlic · 4 cloves, minced or pressed
- —Coarse salt · to taste
- 1/2 tspdried oregano · 1g
- 1/2 tspred chili flake · 1g
- 1/3 cuptomato paste · 75g
- 1 TbspBeef Better Than Bouillon · 15g
- 28 ozcan crushed tomatoes · 800g
- 600 gwater · or enough to fill the empty tomato can 3/4 of the way
- 2 tspgranulated sugar · 7-8g
- 3 Tbspfresh basil · 10g, chopped
- 1 lbdry spaghetti
- —Olive oil · for tossing pasta, plus 1 Tbsp for browning the meat
- —Parmesan cheese · for garnish
Steps
- 1
Warm a tablespoon of oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown the ground beef and Italian sausage together, breaking the meat into small, pea-sized pieces.
- 2
Add the onion, garlic, and a pinch of salt to the meat. Cook 3-5 minutes, until the onion softens and turns translucent.
- 3
Add the tomato paste and stir constantly for about 2 minutes, until it darkens to a deep, rusty red. If the bottom of the pot starts getting too dark, splash in a little water and scrape it up.
- 4
Add the crushed tomatoes, water, beef bouillon, sugar, oregano, and chili flake. Stir to combine and bring to a simmer.
- 5
Lower the heat to medium-low, partially cover the pot, and let the sauce reduce for about 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. Don't skip the lid or the sauce will splatter everywhere.
- 6
While the sauce reduces, cook the spaghetti in boiling water for 10-12 minutes, or per package directions.
- 7
Check the sauce: it's ready when a spoon dragged through it leaves a slow-closing trail. When in doubt, reduce it a little more.
- 8
Drain the spaghetti and toss with a small drizzle of olive oil. Let it steam off for 3-4 minutes so excess water doesn't thin the sauce.
- 9
Off heat, fold the chopped fresh basil into the sauce and taste for salt. Adjust if needed.
- 10
Serve the spaghetti topped with a generous ladle of meat sauce and plenty of grated Parmesan. Goes great with garlic cheese bread.
Creator's notes
Full recipe and instructions on Brian's website: https://brianlagerstrom.com/recipes/moms-spaghetti
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