Meat Sauce for Spaghetti and Pasta

[Tri2Cook]

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".

Based strictly on my experience, I'd say you nailed it. I ate a lot of exactly what you describe growing up. A family of seven and not a lot of money. Huge pots of exactly the type of sauce you describe sitting next to a colander full of spag cooked exactly as you describe. Nothing gourmet or traditional Italian about it... and I'd still be completely happy to sit down to a big plate of it right now.

[SobaAddict70]

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.

Bolognese is a specific type of pasta sauce, more along the lines of what Franci and ChrisTaylor mention. Also, there are various types of meat sauce for pasta that come to mind, such as for example, sugo di carne (basically a sauce that you might make using pan drippings from roast lamb or pork, spiced with rosemary, but for pasta and a good example of wasting nothing that comes out of a kitchen). But that's not what you want, right, Shel?

When I was a teenager, our standard "meat sauce" for pasta was ground beef browned in oil with a little garlic and onion thrown in, then Aunt Millie's, salt, pepper and maybe a bay leaf. I think but am not sure -- maybe Mom added a teaspoonful of sugar. You could sub a can of crushed tomatoes for the Aunt Millie's and it will work fine.

My eyes didn't open until later, but that's not what you're asking for in this thread.

That's the basic template. You can gussy it up with things like red wine, a battuto/soffritto, etc., but those are all optional, at least as far as you're concerned.