Meat Sauce for Spaghetti and Pasta

[Shel_B]

I did a search and, surprisingly, couldn't find a thread about Meat Sauce for Spaghetti and Pasta, so here goes ...

I was gifted with several pounds of grass-fed ground beef, and apart from other uses, I'd like to make a nice meat sauce for spaghetti. I've a number of recipes, but I thought I'd ask here to get some ideas of what other people do when they make their meat sauce - not Bolognese. Looking forward to your comments and suggestions.

[heidih]

So why are you discounting "bolognese" and looking for "meat sauce" - what do you see as the difference? In much of the world they are interchangeable terms. An ummm kinda thought spaghetti was a pasta?

Edited February 11, 2014 by heidih (log)

[OliverB]

I use carrots and some celery root in mine, in addition to onions, garlic, parsley, spices. Sometimes stock or concentrated stock if I think it needs an extra boost. Sometimes a bit of balsamic vinegar. Or a tsp sugar. I'd add some red peppers, but my little girl doesn't like spicy (yet) so those go on at the table. If I have one, I throw a parmesan rind in while cooking. Kind of a play as I go thing, I rarely cook from recipes, I'm more a look for the missing puzzle piece cook in that regard. But always carrots and celery root, shredded.

[Franci]

If I don't make bolognese (and I never used only beef), I always make meat sauce with chunks of meat (mixing pork, beef and lamb), or I like to hand cut beef, so, not as fine as ground, for a not very read sauce that use for spaetzle. The other instance I use ground beef is for meatballs but I don't eat with spaghetti. Italians use more sausage, crumbled, with no casing with vegetables in pasta dishes. So besides tiny meatballs, or mixed with ground pork for bolognese, I never use ground beef for pasta.

[William Colsher]

I'd make nice burgers from most of it, and little meat balls as part of a Neapolitan ragu from maybe half a pound or so. Maybe google "sartu" as well...

[gfweb]

If I don't make bolognese (and I never used only beef), I always make meat sauce with chunks of meat (mixing pork, beef and lamb), or I like to hand cut beef, so, not as fine as ground, for a not very read sauce that use for spaetzle. The other instance I use ground beef is for meatballs but I don't eat with spaghetti. Italians use more sausage, crumbled, with no casing with vegetables in pasta dishes. So besides tiny meatballs, or mixed with ground pork for bolognese, I never use ground beef for pasta.

Your meat sauce translates roughly to what Boston/NY/Philly people call Sunday Sauce (or in Philly "gravy"). A long-simmered tomato sauce with sausage and brasciole and pork added sequentially over hours.

[ChrisTaylor]

Search: ragu. See also: bolognese. The bolognese threads tend to become catch-all ragu threads.

Still, for your question.

• Sear the meat in batches. You want to sear it, not steam it in its own juices.
• You want vegetables. A nice base of onions, carrots, celery. Cut small. Saute until soft. Towards the end some minced garlic, even a minced chilli or two goes nicely. The idea with the chilli, for me anyway, is to add a nice peppery hint to the background. Not making meaty Tabasco here. Depth/complexity. Don't be shy with the vegetables, either. Especially the onion.
• Some kind of salt-cured pork product. Bacon works. Pancetta, too. Use your imagination. I like to sear the meat in fat slow-rendered from a cured pork product of some description.
• You've seen The Shawshank Redemption? Pressure and time. Emphasis on the latter. You need time. A good meat sauce, bolognese-style or otherwise, requires time. It's not a midweek option unless you eat crazy late or work from home. Two hours at least. Three or more won't hurt matters. Gentle cooking. Take the edge off the fat/wine/tomato content.
• You need a happy balance of liquids. I go for a mix of red wine, which I cook down for some time, stock (pressure cook some roasted beef bones and/or pork bones) and tomato sugo. Don't put too much liquid. Slightly too much is okay, as it will reduce some, but if it's crazy soupy to begin with that will not change a whole lot. You can use a lager instead of wine.
• Hope the mince is coarse ground. I like coarse ground mince but I've recently become an advocate for finely, unevenly chopped meat.
• A blend of meats is a nice thing to have. You've got beef? Great. Invite some diced pork shoulder/neck to the party. Lamb can work too. Anything, really.
• A touch of Marmite/Vegemite/*mite at the start of cooking--and I mean A TOUCH, you're not trying to create some malty meaty monstrosity here--is inauthentic by anyone's standards except maybe an Australian dad's but works.
• A pasta more robust than spaghetti.
• By the end you're aiming for something with texture but NOT for liquid plus lumps of mint plus stray bits of onion/carrot/misc. That takes time, the right balance of liquids-to-solids from the outset (slightly too much to cover what's there but not too too much) and attention. You need to stir it regular/keep an eye on proceedings.

[Ashen]

I don't typically do meat sauce on spaghetti. The kind of sauce I make doesn't lend itself to that kind of pasta. I like it better with shorter types like penne rigate, fusilli,or maybe rigatoni. a wide flat shape like mafalda or tagliatelle also works but is not my preference.

family meat sauce/ Sugo , typically a mix of pork, veal( & or beef ), occasionally chicken. , red wine, very small amount of onion( too much makes it sweet) very little tomato is included, maybe a whole carrot fished out at the end to control the acid if needed . Almost could be described as a dry sauce, with what liquid there is having a more oily consistency and a slight orange tinge instead of red from how little tomato is included. It is intensely flavoured and meant to sparsely dress the pasta . At the end of eating a plate there shouldn't be a lot of leftover sauce on the plate.

Personal and family preference on these things of course . YMMV .

Edited February 11, 2014 by Ashen (log)

[Tri2Cook]

I feel like Shel_B is looking for a straightforward North American style sauce (brown some ground beef, maybe with chopped onions and garlic if feeling frisky, dump in some tomato product of preference and season as desired). He may want us to eGullet-ify it a bit for him since he asked here and there are thousands of basic meat sauce recipes on the internet but I don't think he's looking for all-day multi-meat projects. Apologies if I'm incorrect about that Shel_B.

[rotuts]

CI does this and its fine. add some ground pork. they add veal. I dont.

make a simple plain burger first w some of the meat to your level of doneness. use that as a ref to suit your own tastes for the

Meat Sauce you plan to make. grass fed ( 100 % ) is a bit different from grain-finished.

[Shel_B]

I feel like Shel_B is looking for a straightforward North American style sauce (brown some ground beef, maybe with chopped onions and garlic if feeling frisky, dump in some tomato product of preference and season as desired). He may want us to eGullet-ify it a bit for him since he asked here and there are thousands of basic meat sauce recipes on the internet but I don't think he's looking for all-day multi-meat projects. Apologies if I'm incorrect about that Shel_B.

Bingo! I have ground beef, and that's what I want to use. The recipe I pointed to (which, I see now, is in another thread - sorry) is for a quick and easy meat sauce. But, since there was no thread on meat sauces other than Bolognese, it seemed like a good idea to start one, and although I may not want to make anything that will take hours and become a "multi-meat" project, others may get some ideas that they may want to use, and I certainly will find something that will punch up or make more interesting this simple meat sauce, and maybe something I may want to use later.

[Franci]

If I don't make bolognese (and I never used only beef), I always make meat sauce with chunks of meat (mixing pork, beef and lamb), or I like to hand cut beef, so, not as fine as ground, for a not very read sauce that use for spaetzle. The other instance I use ground beef is for meatballs but I don't eat with spaghetti. Italians use more sausage, crumbled, with no casing with vegetables in pasta dishes. So besides tiny meatballs, or mixed with ground pork for bolognese, I never use ground beef for pasta.

Your meat sauce translates roughly to what Boston/NY/Philly people call Sunday Sauce (or in Philly "gravy"). A long-simmered tomato sauce with sausage and brasciole and pork added sequentially over hours.

Yes, I saw a thread Paul Bacino started some years ago. I actually took pictures of my sauce to add to that. There are many variations of that sauce depending from the area of origin. The Neapolitan version is quite different than mine.

[Darienne]

DH, Ed, makes our spaghetti sauce and trust me, it's not fancy. The completely stained old recipe card actually calls for Mazola oil...it's that old.

It calls for ground beef, tomato paste, canned stewed tomatoes, sugar (which we omit), nutmeg, pepper, salt, Parmesan cheese, onion, celery, garlic, parsley, mushrooms, oregano. The beef and vegetables are fried first. It sits and simmers for a long time. I have been known to add basil when he's not watching. That's it. Nothing fancy. Nothing even intriguing. It has suited us for decades...54 years in less than a month.

And then we argue over how al dente the pasta is. And compromise. Maybe that's the secret to our long-lasting marriage.

Oh, and he usually makes enough to freeze for a very long time.

Edited February 11, 2014 by Darienne (log)

[FeChef]

I know you mentioned a meat sauce but if you want a really easy amazing meatball recipe i found one i really like that uses 2 pounds of ground beef, 1 box of stovetop "savory" stuffing, 1 1/4 cup water, 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese, and 1 large egg. You can bake @ 350F till they reach internal temp of 145F. I prefer to freeze 2oz balls and sous vide them @ 145F for 2-4 hours and flash fry them in a pan or deep fryer. Them come out soft and tender inside and slightly crunchy outside. Great contrast in textures.

Edited February 11, 2014 by FeChef (log)

[Paul Bacino]

You can take what this thread has given you and work with it.

I use just plain ole Hunt's-- sauce and a touch of paste. You are looking for a ragu, sloppy joe sauce type sauce I spec.?

Unless you want to have whole tomatoes, in you loose meat sauce, then I hacve plenty of cans of that stuff I just grab on, squish the whole ones that I have drained. Save a little juice to add back in to brighten the sauce at the end.

One thing you can do is after, browning meat and sauting any veg you chose , add the tomato paste and toast ( brown it a bit ). Then add your sauce or whole crushed tomato..me-- I do like a bit of sugar myself.

You could also add butter somewhere, MH makes her sauce with butter and onion.. so you can play with that idea

Good luck, no matter what.. it should work

Paully

Edited February 11, 2014 by Paul Bacino (log)

[basquecook]

I was going to say, the classic meat sauce you are probably looking for, is made from larger pieces of meat that is stewed for a long time and also beef broth is added..

I was going to recommend you make meat stuffed ravioli, lasagna, or meat stuffed baked peppers with the beef or even stuffed cabbage.

But, because of the clarifications up top, I think you have it covered.. But, now I want to make a good old fashion pot of 'Murican Chili.

Edited February 11, 2014 by basquecook (log)

[Darienne]

Oops. DH reminded me that he adds green pepper to his sauce. And it's not even on the recipe. Says next time, he'll consider using Poblanos. We've been able to get them now for over two years.

[huiray]

Here's something I make from time to time.

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/143989-lunch-whatd-ya-have-20122014/page-5#entry1906904

Here's one thread on eG with posts that touch on the use of cinnamon in meat sauce for pasta or otherwise.

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/145686-weird-combos-that-worked-out-just-right/page-2

[gfweb]

Here's something I make from time to time.

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/143989-lunch-whatd-ya-have-20122014/page-5#entry1906904

Here's one thread on eG with posts that touch on the use of cinnamon in meat sauce for pasta or otherwise.

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/145686-weird-combos-that-worked-out-just-right/page-2

A bit off topic, but I put a breath of cinnamon in many beef braises, to very good effect.

[Blether]

My local Italian restaurant (the chef's *very* talented) does a dish of pasta with "beef in red wine" ragu. It's very good, in the way that beef cooked well in red wine always is.

[MRE]

I call this my 8379 sauce, because I've made it, so it seems anyway, at least that many times. It's my version of what most Americans would think of as meat sauce. There aren't any measurements, because ... well ... who measures when making this stuff. I go light on the spices, heavy on onion, celery, & garlic. My method is to start cooking the aromatics and spices first in the olive oil, and then start adding in the meat in small meatball sized pinches. Once the meat is browned I season with salt, a little sugar and then add tomato sauce, puree, wine and usually a bit of water. After that I simmer it until ready. Of course it is always better the next day as everyone knows.

Ground Sirloin

Onion

Garlic

Green or Red Bell Pepper

Celery

Ground Celery Seed

Chopped Parsley

Italian Seasoning

(my own blend,

4 parts Basil

2 parts Oregano

1 parts Savory

1 parts Thyme

1 parts Marjoram)

Crushed Red Chiles

Olive Oil

Mushrooms (optional)

Salt

Pepper

Sugar

Red Wine

Muir Glen, Trader Joe’s (yes TJ's, I really like the taste) or Progresso Tomato Paste

Cento, Muir Glen, or Progresso Tomato Puree

[annabelle]

Here's something I make from time to time.

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/143989-lunch-whatd-ya-have-20122014/page-5#entry1906904

Here's one thread on eG with posts that touch on the use of cinnamon in meat sauce for pasta or otherwise.

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/145686-weird-combos-that-worked-out-just-right/page-2

A bit off topic, but I put a breath of cinnamon in many beef braises, to very good effect.

I do this with pasticcio. My family is not appreciative of my Greek food prowess, however.

[mgaretz]

My red sauce recipe is here: http://markiscooking.com/?p=80

[huiray]

Here's what I did last night just in an ad-hoc manner:

Ground beef (chuck, in this case) with stuff for a meat sauce for pasta.

Garlic, mushrooms, ground beef, halved Cherub tomatoes.

One large onion, roughly chopped...

Onions & garlic being browned...

The beef went in, the tomatoes, the mushrooms, some sea salt; later some canned whole plum tomatoes (cut into quarters using the spatula)...

Some rock sugar, rice wine (ryori-shu) and rice vinegar [Kong Yen] was also added in...simmered...

Pasta was cooked (linguine; [De Cecco]) and served w/ the meat sauce.

So - no spices were used in this version. "Seasoning" was salt plus whatever the ingredients added in brought to the dish.

In a sense I suspect you are over-thinking this. For a "meat sauce for pasta" just do whatever comes to mind and whatever one feels like at the moment. If you are searching for the one, single, perfect recipe to do such a sauce with your ground "special" meat - there is no such thing.

[patrickamory]

I've been attempting to recreate some version of the Italian-American red sauces I had growing up, and have encountered in the dwindling number of authentic restaurants in the Northeast.

Some thoughts:

- brown the meat in batches - I always use ground beef, but ground pork, pork ribs, veal bones are all options

- meatballs and sweet Italian sausage chunks are also options

- sauté plenty of onion and garlic in a mixture of olive oil/butter and the fat from the meat

- use tomato paste, and plenty of it, in addition to the tomatoes

- use dried herbs - oregano or "Italian seasoning"

- the pinch of white sugar is traditional

- do not stint on the salt

- mushrooms or green pepper optional - bringing it closer to a '70s school lunch vibe, but I'm sure very tasty

- do not cook the pasta al dente, it should be just past that point and soft (old school Italian places in NYC now offer al dente as an option on the menu - a clue to the fact that it was not the norm here, or hadn't been for a long time)

- serve the pasta and sauce separately and let each diner dress their own dish - but definitely way more sauce than pasta

It's not ragu or bolognese… you do not start with a soffrito/battuto, there is no carrot or celery, there is no nutmeg, and the final combination does not have that "sauce is a condiment" effect, with each strand of just-cooked pasta lovingly & carefully coated with just the right amount of sauce. It should be total sensory overkill! And great for cold winter nights...

and I'm sure there are a million different variations, but I think the above list of bullet points captures what I think of as American "spaghetti and meat sauce".

Edited February 15, 2014 by patrickamory (log)