Recipe(tried): Meat Spaghetti Sauce for Janet

Hi Janet, I don't know if my recipe will be to your liking but you can give it a try. I am wondering if you might want to try a different brand of tomatoes??!?

Meat Spaghetti Sauce

1 1/4 lbs. ground chuck
1/2 c - 3/4 c chopped onion
1/2 c chopped green bell pepper
sliced mushrooms, fresh or canned (optional)

Brown (saute) all of the above until the meat is no longer pink and the onions are soft. Drain well.

To the meat, onions, peppers and mushrooms add:

1 - 28 ounce can Hunt's whole tomatoes, juice and all (With your hands, crush and break the whole tomatoes into small pieces)
1 - 8 ounce can Hunt's plain tomato sauce
3 Tbsp Hunt's tomato paste*
1/2 c. water
4 whole, peeled cloves garlic
1 to 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 to 1 1/2 tsp dried sweet basil
3 dried bay leaves
1/2 to 1 tsp. sugar (you might want to leave out the sugar)

Cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Uncover and simmer for 30 more minutes, adding more water if the sauce gets too dry. Instead of water, you can use some dry red wine the first time but I wouldn't add it later since you want to make sure that the alcohol cooks out and only the flavor of the wine is left. If the sauce is too thick near the end of the cooking time, just use water. Remove the whole garlic cloves and the bay leaves before serving. My instinct is that the wine might make this sauce seem sweeter but maybe not. You can experiment. This sauce freezes well but will need some extra water when you reheat it.

* Tomato paste here comes in a 6 ounce can so you only need part of it for my recipe. I just plunk approximate tablespoons of it on something I can put in the freezer. Once the tomato paste is frozen, I put the "chunks" in a freezer bag and keep them frozen for the next time I need them.