Adventures in Cooking

I was feeling a bit adventurous this week, and decided to try making my own red sauce. I'd been craving lasagna and realized I was out of my normal Bertolli pasta sauce. Publix didn't have any on sale, so I decided to make my own! It was much more time consuming than just popping open a ready made jar, but it was worth it! 

I found a highly rated recipe on Allrecipes.com and did some heavy tweaking. I was very pleased with the results. 

While the lasagna was in the oven, I decided to look for a good garlic knots recipe. Nothing I came across was very inspiring, so I pulled together my own. I'll include that recipe in my next post. 

So if you're in the market for a tasty red sauce, why don't you give this one a try. 

Red Sauce

3/4 cup onion, chopped

5-7 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 cup olive oil

28 oz diced tomatoes

28 oz crushed tomatoes

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

Pinch of chopped bay leaves

6 oz tomato paste

1 tsp Italian seasoning

1/2 tsp basil

1 lb lean ground beef

In a large saucepan over medium heat, saute onion and garlic in olive oil until onions are translucent. Stir in tomatoes, salt, sugar, and bay leaf. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 90 minutes. Stir in tomato paste, Italian seasoning, and basil. Continue simmering for 30 minutes. 

While sauce is simmering, cook ground beef in large frying pan. Drain any grease and season with salt and grated parmesan if desired. 

Add cooked ground beef to red sauce. 

Serve with pasta, or use for making lasagna.