Homemade Spaghetti Sauce
There’s this story in my family that my Uncle Craig used to make spaghetti by putting boiled noodles, cooked ground beef and ketchup in a pot together and calling it a day. That is all but blasphemy, and considering how much my Grandpa Larry, his father, loved spaghetti ... well, I never believed it was true.
Grandpa Larry loved spaghetti so much that he ate it every Wednesday for the last 10 years. If that sounds excessive, it’s because it is, but it’s also God’s honest truth. Granny made it for him the first six of those years and he ate it at Dale’s Seafood in Lake Waccamaw, North Carolina, for the last four. After we held his viewing last week, my family went to the restaurant to get a taste of the dish that kept him coming back.
It was a good spaghetti. The noodles weren’t too squishy and the sauce was just right — flavorful and meaty, with plenty of onion. But what really touched me wasn’t the spaghetti at all. It was the table in the corner.
Now, being that I’d visited Dale’s with my grandfather many times, I knew he had a specific table he liked to eat at when he came in. I ventured toward it as soon as we arrived, hoping we could snag it for the evening, but to my surprise, it was taken — not by guests, but by a candle, an empty plate and a handmade sign that said: “In Loving Memory of Mr. Larry.”
It wasn’t anything fancy, which is good because my grandpa never liked fuss, but I cried when I saw it. It meant a lot to me to see that people who knew him in life still cared so much about him. The waitresses who set the memorial table up told me they loved him. He always tipped well, for one, but he was also sweet and, despite liking things a certain way (a generous understatement on their parts), never gave them too much trouble.
I decided after leaving that night that this week’s recipe had to be related to spaghetti. It won’t be Dale’s recipe — I asked for it and they said it was top secret — but it’ll be the one for sauce my Granny taught me to make from the tomatoes we’d can together every year. I’d wager it’s just as good.
Want to make Homemade Spaghetti Sauce? Here’s what you need:
♦ 6 garlic cloves, minced
♦ 1 pound lean ground beef
♦ 1 pound spicy Italian sausage
♦ 1 teaspoon salt
♦ 1 teaspoon black pepper
♦ 1 yellow onion, chopped or diced (depending on your size preference)
♦ 1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
♦ 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
♦ 1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
♦ 12 ounces tomato paste
♦ 3/4 cup water, or as needed
♦ 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped
♦ 1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped
♦ 3/4 tsp dried oregano
♦ 1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
Here’s how you make it:
In a large skillet or dutch oven, add in the sausage and beef over medium-high heat. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to break the meat up into small pieces. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the meat is browned and no pink remains. Drain off the fat and transfer the cooked meat to a plate lined with paper towels, leaving 1 tablespoon of rendered fat behind in the skillet. If you are unable to save the fat, you can substitute it with one tablespoon of olive oil.
Add the onion and cook for about four minutes, stirring occasionally. Next, add the garlic. Cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Once that is ready, add in your crushed and diced tomatoes, water, tomato paste, cooked meat, salt, pepper, basil, parsley, oregano, crushed red pepper flakes and sugar. Stir to combine.
Bring the sauce to a simmer then reduce heat to low, allowing to cook for 30-45 minutes or until the sauce has reached desired thickness. Stir occasionally. Add water as necessary if sauce thickens beyond your liking.
Serve right away with cooked pasta or freeze for later.
Kelcey Caulder is a reporter for the Calhoun Times. She was born in North Carolina and raised in Georgia. After spending the last three years in Los Angeles, she’s pretty stoked to be back in the South, where the food is good and the people are friendly. You can email her at KCaulder@CalhounTimes.com.