Grandma's Spaghetti Sauce
This recipe makes a generous batch that can be frozen in smaller quantities for those last-minute meals. Grandma's recipe doesn't include the crushed tomatoes with basil, but I like the flavor it adds to the sauce. I use the organic tomato puree and crushed tomatoes, but any brand will work. Just make sure you are buying the larger sized cans.
Ingredients
- 1 lb. lean ground beef
- 1/2 lb. Italian sausage
- 1 medium bunch celery (8-10 stalks)
- 1 medium white or yellow onion
- 3-4 cloves fresh garlic
- 3 T. olive oil
- 2 28-oz. cans tomato puree
- 1 28-oz, can crushed tomatoes with basil
- 1/2 c. chopped fresh parsley
- 1 T. ready-to-use chopped basil
Instructions
- Combine ground beef and Italian sausage in a large frying pan and brown.
- Drain off excess fat, set aside.
- Chop celery and onion into pieces that will fit into a food processor.
- Using the chopping blade for your food processor, combine celery, onion and garlic and process until ingredients are well-chopped and liquidy.
- In a large stock pot, heat olive oil over medium heat.
- Add celery, onion and garlic mixture and cook until most of the liquid is evaporated, stirring frequently to prevent burning.
- Add browned ground beef and sausage to the celery mixture and combine.
- Make a well in the center of the pot.
- Add tomato puree and crushed tomatoes, stir.
- Add two cans of water (use the cans from the tomato puree so that you get all the puree from the can and don't waste any of it) to pot; stir.
- Bring sauce to a boil, stirring frequently..
- After the sauce comes to a boil, reduce heat to low and continue to simmer for 4-5 hours.
- Remove sauce from heat and stir in the parsley and basil.
- Allow sauce to cool before putting into freezer containers.
