Spaghetti Sauce

Prep time: 10 minutes || Cook time: 30 minutes || Serving: 4 || Rating 10/10

Ingredients

• 1lb sausage (casings removed) or ground meat (Chicken, Beef etc.)
• 1 bottle (700-800 mL) passata (or crushed tomatoes)
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 1 carrot, grated
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 8-10 mushrooms, chopped
• tomato paste (sometimes required to obtain desired consistency)
• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil, divided. This will be used to fry up to three separate batches of ingredients)

Seasoning:

• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 tablespoon dried basil
• 1-2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or to taste (for spiceness)
• 2-3 bay leaves
• 1-2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• salt and peppers, to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat pot over medium-high heat.
2. Add olive oil, onions and peppers, cook until translucent (about 5 min), set aside.
3. Add olive oil (if necessary), carrots and mushrooms, cook until soft (about 3-4 minutes), set aside.
4. Add olive oil (if necessary), and ground sausage, thoroughly break apart, and cook until ready (about 5 minutes).
5. Add garlic and cook until fragrant (about 30 seconds).
6. Deglaze pot with balsamic vinegar, let it boil to reduce liquid, for about 30 seconds.
7. Add oregano, basil and parsley, cook for about 30 seconds.
8. Add onions, peppers, mushrooms, and carrots, stir to mix.
9. Add passata, and mix.
10. Add about half a cup of water to the empty passata bottle, and shake to resuspend any remaining sauce. Add to the pot.
11. Depending on the consistency of the sauce at this point, either add tomato paste to thicken, or water to thin it out.
12. Season with salt and pepper. Adujust the seasonsing to taste.
13. Add bay leaves, reduce heat to low, cover, and allow it to simmer for about 5-10 minutes
14. Before serving, removed bay leaves.