ITALIAN MEAT SAUCE

By request from a certain niece, I am posting my pasta sauce recipe.  This is a good basic pasta meat sauce and when I make sauce I try to make plenty.  It doesn't take any longer, no matter how much you make, and then you have some for the freezer.  I also start with a lean meat and I prefer ground sirloin and chuck mixed, using a little olive oil to brown.  I hate to have to drain meat, and this way you don't have to.  I also like to buy my meat at HEB (here in Texas) because they grind their own fresh daily and also will grind however you wish, single, double or triple, depending on how fine a grind you like and I like it fine so that it breaks up easier.  I also make my sauce a day before I am going to use it so that the flavors can blend better.  When serving spaghetti with meat sauce, I always combine the two the day before I am serving for the same reason for waiting on the sauce.  This way the flavor penetrates the pasta.  I hope that you enjoy this recipe.

ITALIAN MEAT SAUCE

3 lbs meat of choice, browned
5-6 TBL Italian seasonings, store brand is fine
1 large sweet yellow onion diced
2 TBL salt
2 bay leaves
3 TBL garlic powder
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1 29 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 29 oz can tomato puree
2 cans of tomato paste

Brown the meat and onions along with Italian seasoning, salt, and garlic powder.  When browned add the three types of tomato along with the pepper flakes and bay leaves.  At this point you can continue cooking on top of the stove, stirring occasionally to keep it from sticking to the pan, or you can put this in an oven safe pot or dish with cover and bake at 350 for about an hour, checking to make sure that it doesn reduce too much, if it does, you can add either water, tomato sauce or tomato juice to loosen it up some.  I do this when I don't want to have to watch as often when it's on a burner.  Of course this time I stirred on top of the stove because I didn't want to keep the kitchen heated in the record heat wave week that Texas is having.  You can taste at this time and I usually add fresh black pepper to taste and more salt if needed.  Let it cool and put some of this over your cooked spaghetti ,stir it up, cover and put in refrigerator overnight.  I then divide the remainder into ziploc freezer bags and put them in the freezer.  You should label and date the ziplocs.  Sometimes I get in a hurry and forget, which means sometimes my husband gets a mystery dinner...we defrost and find out together what's for dinner....not always fun...