Spaghetti Sauce, Filipino Style

Whenever I visit my children in New York and Boston (or they come to visit me), I always cook Filipino dishes – both are foodies and love to cook (yes!), but they live such busy lives and don’t often have the time to cook their favorite comfort food from home. Spaghetti sauce is one such dish and back home in the Philippines this sauce is always cooked with ground meat, in Ragu or Bolognese style (see my posting in this blog about Pasta Sauces). Bolognese is a robust meat sauce also known as Ragu; it is hearty, with ground beef or pork, pancetta, tomatoes, onions, garlic, carrots and celery.  The sauce is sometimes enhanced with a bit of wine, cream and seasoning.

This is my own adaptation of this recipe—it has ground beef, garlic, onions, red wine, clarified butter, extra-virgin olive oil, grated cheese, salt and freshly ground pepper, and, I’m not ashamed to admit, the best store-bought, all-natural, low-fat  ready-made pasta sauce. I have tried many brands, but I find that Rao’s sauces are the best—they not only have the best flavors, they also do not contain any preservatives or chemicals. There is no way in the world that I can make a better-tasting tomato-based pasta sauce, so I’m leaving this one to the experts. They are a bit more expensive than other brands, but you will get your money’s worth, I promise you. I usually combine two different sauces, the Tomato-Basil and the Marinara, but you can choose what you want. If you want it spicy, try the Arrabiatta (Fra Diavolo Sauce).

Please note (from the photo above) that I used a 10-quart stock pot, and the finished sauce comes up to about two-thirds of the pot, or roughly 6 to 7 quarts (1 quart equals 4 cups, so you do the math). We’ll have some of it for dinner tonight, but I will freeze the rest to take to my son in New York. This recipe will easily serve 8-10 people; for a smaller group, you can halve the recipe if you like.

You can use this sauce with your favorite pasta shape—just make sure you serve it piping hot, with plenty of garlic bread and grated cheese topping (preferably freshly grated Parmesan).

Ingredients:

4 1/2 pounds ground beef (at least 80% lean)

2 tablespoons clarified butter (or you can use unsalted stick butter)

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (or you can use regular olive oil, or canola oil)

8 to10 large garlic cloves, minced

1 large (or 2 medium) onion, diced small

1/2 cup good red wine

1 large red bell pepper, cubed small

1 large green bell pepper, cubed small

4 24-ounce bottles of Rao’s pasta sauces (Tomato-Basil and Marinara, or any combination)

8 ounces grated cheese (Cheddar or Monterey Jack, or a combination of both)

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Directions:

Put the ground beef in a big bowl and stir with your fingers to get rid of lumps.

In a large stock pot over medium heat, heat the clarified butter and extra-virgin olive oil. Add the garlic and keep stirring until it turns pale golden in color; add the onion and keep stirring for at least 4 minutes, until it is soft and caramelized (this makes a difference, because onions exude their flavor when caramelized, and if you add liquids or some ingredients too soon, you won’t fully extract that wonderful onion flavor).

Add the beef and cook, stirring often, until it’s browned and no longer pink, about 10-15 minutes. Pour in the red wine; stir and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover the pot, and let it simmer for one hour, checking and stirring once in a while just to make sure it doesn’t get too dry.

Add the red and green bell peppers and stir to combine. Add the pasta sauce, bring the mixture to a boil once again, then reduce heat to low, cover the pot, and let simmer for another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the grated cheese and stir until it’s completely melted. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper, according to your taste. Pour over freshly cooked spaghetti or other pasta, sprinkle with freshly grated Parmesan cheese, and serve hot. Serves 8 to 10.