Recipe: Classic Brooklyn-Italian Meat Sauce

CLASSIC BROOKLYN-ITALIAN MEAT SAUCE

"There's nothing all-purpose about this sauce: you serve it on pasta when you want a few ladlefuls of liquid meat! It is exactly what I grew up with in Brooklyn, when the choice at most Italian restaurants for spaghetti sauce was tomato sauce or meat sauce. Later we all learned that this meat sauce has its roots in the renowned Bolognese ragu. But you'd never mistake one for the other. The ancestor from Bologna has a mix of meats in it (sometimes including chicken liver), and much less meat. This Brooklyn-Italian meat sauce has tons of ground beef alone-and, after an hour or so of cooking, a surprising amount of wonderful, hearty flavor."

2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup finely minced garlic
1/2 pound onions, peeled and finely minced
1 carrot, peeled and finely minced
1 stalk celery, finely minced
3 pounds ground beef
Salt
2 cans (28-ounces each) tomatoes in juice
1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons dried oregano

Place the olive oil in a large, heavy Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and onions and saut , stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.

Add the carrot and celery and saut , stirring occasionally, for another 5 minutes.

Push vegetables to one side of the pot and add about one-third of the ground beef Salt the beef to taste. Cook until starting to brown, about 3 to 5 minutes. Stir the beef occasionally, breaking it up as you do. Push it to the side (or over the vegetables) and repeat with the second third of the beef. After that starts to brown, push it aside and repeat with the remainder of the beef.

When all the beef is done, mix the beef and vegetables together. Add the tomatoes with their juice to the pot. Add the tomato paste, sugar, and oregano. Mix well. Simmer for 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally, breaking up the tomatoes against the side of the pot as you do.

When the sauce is done cooking, season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately, or freeze

Makes about 3 quarts
Source: It's All American Food by David Rosengarten