Lazy Meat Sauce

Lazy Meat Sauce is not Bolognese. Sorry. Bolognese is a gorgeous, carefully balanced symphony of flavors. There are finely chopped vegetables. There’s dairy to smooth things out. A faint whiff of nutmeg. It’s a beautiful thing…

That’s not what this is.

What this is: a lazy red sauce when I don’t feel like choppin’ (while I do other things you don’t have to do like make fresh pasta). Don’t get me wrong, your house will smell incredible for however long you want to cook it. The beauty of this sauce is you can simply prep it and leave it alone, and it’ll only get better and better the longer it simmers. Then you can do what I do–chauffeur my kids around from sport to sport with the comforting knowledge that you’ve already slayed dinner.

So grab a pot. Heat some oil. Plop in some ground beef. Salt. Sauté ‘til nice and brown. Drain, if you’re healthy (I don’t). Pour in some wine, simmer ‘til your mouth waters. Dump in tomatoes. Swish the empty can with some water and add that too. Stir in dried herbs. Onion. Carrot. Celery. Garlic. Basil. Simmer an hour or all day if you want (just add water periodically). Taste for salt, remove the spent items (carrot, onion, et al) and you got yourself a sauce for your favorite noodles, baby.

Serve with…
Your (or more likely your family’s) favorite noodles, duh. I like to toss them in a bit of sauce first, then put the rest in a serving bowl so folks can ladle more on if desired. Fresh grated parm. Crusty bread. Simple side salad. Done.

Lazy Meat Sauce

Recipe by NotToMyTasteCourse: DinnerCuisine: Italian(ish)Difficulty: Simple

Servings

6

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

3

hours 

A no-chop, long-simmer red sauce while you do literally anything else. A great weekend set-and-forget. Leftovers for lunches. Freezer-friendly. Makes the house smell delicious all. day. long.

Ingredients

• 1lb ground beef

• A few glugs wine (Red? White? Whatever.)

• 1 28oz can crushed tomatoes (or whole, squished with your hands; it’s therapeutic)

• 1 onion, halved

• 1 carrot, hunked (or a few baby carrots because you always have a waterlogged bag of those in the back of your crisper drawer. Why?)

• 1 stick celery, hunked

• 1-2 cloves garlic, lightly smashed

• 1 stalk fresh basil (and/or oregano…if you fancy)

• Salt, pepper, herbs (whatever you like. I go dried oregano. 1Tbsp-ish. Keep it simple)

Method

• Heat a sauce pot with a bit of oil
• Plop meat in, sprinkle salt all over, and sauté ’til nice and brown. Drain, if you’re healthy (I do not)
• Pour in wine and simmer ’til your mouth waters
• Dump in tomatoes. Swish the empty can with some water to get ALL that tomato-y goodness and go ahead and add that too
• Stir in dried herbs
• Add onion, carrot, celery, garlic, basil/oregano
• Simmer an hour. Two. All day if you want (just add water periodically)
• Taste for salt, remove the spent items (carrot, onion, et al) and you got yourself a sauce for your favorite noodles, baby

Notes

• This sauce is also perfectly serviceable as a lasagna base.
• Double batch and freeze = weeknight dinner hero move.
• I have even put this on pizza. True story. Are you bold enough?