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Amazing Red Sauce

Pasta with red sauce is an iconic kid meal.  It is also comfort food for many adults.  Did you ever notice how comfort food is often kid food too?  Did you know that some red sauce is called gravy?  That one was new to me!  For me gravy is for potatoes and stuffing!  {oops, I started to ramble . . . }

I make several red sauces depending on what I have in the house and what is in season.  Typically, I buy organic red sauce and add onions, garlic, and peppers.  But often I put a combination of  leeks, mushrooms, celery, spinach, kale and carrots . . . clearly I use what I have on hand.

My family loves meatballs!  So occasionally I will make meatballs to go with the red sauce.  I cook them separately so the red sauce will still be vegan but my meat eaters can have the meatballs.  Another favorite is sausage ravioli or chicken tortellini.   

[yumprint-recipe id=’5′]This is a great basic recipe.  I have found a organic red sauce that is the same price as non-organic.  SCORE.  Why organic?  Check out the Fun Food Fact Friday on the dirty dozen and the clean green food lists to find out how I decide what to buy organic.  

This recipe is doubled so that I can freeze one batch–I love the idea of cooking once and having 2 meals!

Want to watch a red sauce video?  I made this video to show you just how simple and FAST it is to make a great red sauce with loads of veggies!

Be Blessed.

L.O.V.E.,

Renee

 

Pasta with Red Sauce (Loaves and Fishes Cookbook)

October 2013 Meal

I made this recipe for my family last week!  We are 6 (but my son eats enough for 2!) –we had dinner twice and I gave a meal to a friend and froze the rest of the red sauce down–so if you do Once a Month Cooking–this would be a good recipe to make and freeze.

Red Sauce (make 2 gallons)

makes 1 gallon=16 cups=32 1/2 cup servings

We need two gallons of red sauce to feed 50–I would rather have too much than not enough.

Ingredients:

3 lbs of ground beef

2 cups of diced onions

2 cups of diced peppers

1 head of garlic minced (that is about 6-8 cloves)

8  25 oz jars of red sauce

Brown the ground beef with the onions, peppers and garlic.

Add 8 jars of store-bought red sauce.  Of course I try to buy organic :-) but make sure that you are buying 25 oz per jar–I’ve noticed that some jars only have 23 and when you are making a big batch like this 2 oz multiplied by 8 is 2 servings!

I let the red sauce simmer in a huge pan to let the flavors meld.

Pasta

I cooked up regular spaghetti and farfalle pasta to determine to see if there was a difference in how much it “grew” in the cooking process.  I discovered that the yield is the same BUT the ease of serving is much better with the smaller pasta.

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side by side comparison

1 cup of pasta 1/2 cup of red sauce

Making it for your own home:

For my family I add 2 cups of carrots and 2 cups of celery.  I use Laura’s ground beef, organic carrots, onions, peppers and celery–most prices are fairly close.  The ground beef is more expensive BUT I feel, at this time, it is the best choice–I’m doing more research of factory farming.  Most of my family eats a plant based diet so the cost of meat is less of an issue for us.  I can stay on budget while eating really good, healthy food grown without chemicals and pesticides.

I might use fettuccine or spaghetti for this recipe because in my house I’m not that concerned about serving size.  I know if I cook a pound of pasta we will eat it!

Be Blessed as you prepare food for your family, a gathering of friends or a homeless shelter.