[Sca-cooks] Spaghetti sauce- long- was Mock Beef Stroganoff

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Dec 11, 2005, at 9:31 AM, marilyn traber 011221 wrote:

> Our family recipe is not terribly difficult, but is, perhaps, a
> step beyond what some folks call spaghetti- neither Spaghetti-Os
> nor catsup form any part of the recipe.

Sweet Jayzus, I knew about the ketchup, but Spaghetti-O's, too???  
'Tis a dark, dark world we live in, an' no mistake.

> We start with ground meat-
> have used hamburger, various sausages, and venison, as well as Spam
> on one particularly broke occasion- Spam is NOT an experiment
> that's likely to be repeated, although we were hungry enough to eat
> it. Meat is browned with garlic and onions, and drained. At this
> point the tomatoes are added, and that can vary quite a bit,
> depending on what I have available- I've used fresh tomatoes,
> cooked down, commercial puree, tomato sauce, tomato paste, or
> tomatoes, but I'm basicly looking for a particular texture- basicly
> thinner than it will wind up. Once this is heated through, I add
> the vegetables- chopped celery, mushrooms, a bit of good red wine,
> maybe more onions, and a couple fresh hot peppers if I have them,
> and the herbs and spices, oregano in particular, others as the
> spirit moves me and the flavors seem to call for it (different
> commercial tomato products taste different, so that needs to be
> accounted for), and let the whole pot simmer for at least a couple
> hours, checking occasionally and adjusting flavors.

This is one form of pretty standard Sunday Italian-American "gravy",  
and certainly nothing to sneeze at under any circumstances. But then,  
I also like the "recipe" given by Richard Castellano in "The Godfather".

> When I started cooking for Father Tony, a friend of mine, who was
> Sicilian, he'd tell me it was good, but it wasn't spaghetti
> sauce. "Why" said I? "Because it's not like his Mama used to make
> (at this point she was in her early 90s, and still cooking for him
> occasionally, but not very complicated dishes). So, I asked him
> what he thought was spaghetti sauce, and he pulled out a jar of
> Ragu.

I've heard similar regarding other rather unlikely people. It's a  
skeleton in the cultural closet.

> Now, I dunno about anyone else, but Ragu is, well, not BAD,

And people say you're not diplomatic ;-) ... I think it's pretty  
terrible, myself -- I think it's all the sugar, or maybe they've  
finally sunk to the high-fructose corn syrup stage.

> but,
> shall we say, not good enough, that unless I was pretty hungry, I'd
> want to eat it- and take this from someone who actually ATE that
> stuff with Spam in it!

<sigh>

> So this became quite a bone of contenion- he said I wasn't making
> real spaghetti sauce, I said I was too, because the sauce I was
> making went on spaghetti, so it was by definition. I think we
> argued about this, off and on for years.

And this is a surprise to someone who has lived through the Cuskynole  
Wars?

> One year, his sister Mary came to visit for a couple of weeks, and
> she and I became friends. We got into the soaghetti discussion, and
> she clued me in. The reason Fr Tony thought Ragu was "real"
> spaghetti sauce, was because that's what his mother had used to
> make spaghetti with, understanding that in the first place, she
> really wasn't much of a cook, and in the second place, she had
> worked a full time job in the garment district (NYC), and then came
> home to feed her husband and her two kids.

Perfectly understandable. I grew up with a meat sauce consisting  
(often) of whatever jarred goop was on sale (and that was sometimes  
Ragu), sometimes thickened with a little tomato paste, mixed into  
cooked ground beef and simmered very briefly. It wasn't actively  
toxic, anyway.

>
> So, my spaghetti sauce isn't Marinara sauce.

Well, no. Marinara is normally a quick-cooked sauce, originally for  
seafood. What I make when I'm in a hurry is more like marinara with  
meat. If I use something from a jar it's one of the Progresso  
Classico versions (although they seem to be adding more sugar these  
days, too).

Normally (again, when I'm in a hurry, and I rarely make tomato pasta  
sauce when I'm not, because SWMBO is massively allergic to tomatoes,  
so pasta with a tomato-based sauce is normally a thing for when I'm  
alone with the Evil Spawn and he's howling for sustenance to fill the  
gaping teenage maw) I saute onions and garlic in olive oil in an iron  
skillet, add ground beef or Italian sausages, either pre-cooked or  
pulled from the casing. When the meat is browned and cooked through,  
I add a can of plum tomatoes in heavy puree and a tiny pinch (less  
than 1/8 tsp) of baking soda to cut some of the acid that is  
sometimes evident when tomatoes aren't cooked long or slowly enough.  
Some people will say this is abominable, but on a chemical level, the  
baking soda turns into CO2, water, and salt, the CO2 escapes and the  
water and salt would be there anyway. Some of the same people who  
claim it's abominable also add sugar or even raisins at this point,  
so I guess abominable is in the eye of the beholder. A splash or red  
or white wine is optional, generally based on whether I have an open  
bottle handy. I add oregano, occasionally basil, and a lot of chopped  
parsley (I'm not one of those that runs away shrieking at the mere  
mention of dried parsley, BTW). Salt and pepper, and after a brief  
simmer, a few drops of additional olive oil.

This is all done in the same time it takes to boil a gallon of pasta  
water, so from cabinet and fridge to plate is  about the same time  
frame as if I used Ragu (bleah).

Adamantius

"S'ils n'ont pas de pain, vous fait-on dire, qu'ils  mangent de la  
brioche!" / "If there's no bread to be had, one has to say, let them  
eat cake!"
     -- attributed to an unnamed noblewoman by Jean-Jacques Rousseau,  
"Confessions", 1782

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy -- or go on Prozac?"
     -- Susan Sheybani, assistant to Bush campaign spokesman Terry  
Holt, 07/29/04