Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

Last night, the cutest wine boutique in walking distance from me, Fermented, hosted a virtual wine tasting through Zoom to tell the community about 4 of their favorite wines that you could buy through curbside pickup this week. I chose one red, and one white despite my hesitancy to choose a white, they quickly talked me into giving it a try. I am a "red wine person" through and through.

Marcel Couturier, Les Longues Terres from Mâcon-Loché - it was AMAZING and I actually ended up preferring it over the red. A french chardonnay that I will now make a regular appearance in my wine cooler.

With this wine tasing on the calendar, I began to have a craving for Italian.

Spaghetti with homemade meat sauce.

I hope you never buy another jar of store-bought meat sauce again after trying this recipe. It takes time to simmer so that the flavors come together, but it's easy and well worth the wait... that allowed for an extra glass of that Chardonnay.

Tip: I like to double the recipe and then freeze what's left for my next spaghetti night.

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Recipe:

• 1 lb of Italian Sausage (this can be substituted with ground beef or ground turkey but I highly recommend trying with the Italian sausage)

• 1, 15 oz can of tomato sauce

• 1, 6 oz can of tomato paste

• 1, 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes

• 1/2 white onion, diced

• 3/4 cup of bella mushrooms (optional)

• 1/2 cup of green bell pepper (optional)

• 2 garlic cloves, minced

• 3/4 cup of water

• 1 1/2 tsp of fresh basil, diced

• 1 tsp of dried parsley

• 1 tsp of brown sugar

• 1/2 tsp of salt

• 1/4 tsp of crushed red pepper

• 2 tbsp of red wine (optional)

Instructions

1. In a heavy bottom pot or pan, brown the Italian Sausage on medium heat

2. Add onions, peppers and mushrooms and stirring into the Italian sausage, letting them cook until they start to soften (5 minutes)

3. Add garlic, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, tomato paste and water - stirring to combine

4. Add brown sugar, salt, basil, parsley, red pepper, and red wine - stir to combine

5. Simmer on low for at-least an hour. The longer you simmer, the better the sauce will taste.

6. Boil noodles according to package - I like to add a dash of salt and olive oil to the water boiling my spaghetti noodles

7. Serve and top with Parmesan cheese