How to make Pasta and Meat Sauce or Pasta al Ragu`- Italian Recipes

Pasta and meat sauce is a classic in Italy. We call it "Pasta al Ragu`" and when made from scratch, the sauce can take quite a long time to make. The result can be incredible, but here is a super tasty, speedy and easy recipe I want to give you today. Use it for a quick, Meat Sauce Spaghetti Madness Night!

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• 1 pound of good ground beef
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• some red wine or Marsala wine (optional)
• a jar of tomato pasta sauce (not marinara), Tomato and basil would be the best

1. Cook the ground beef in a sauce pan, over medium high fire, with some olive oil, salt and pepper for about five minutes or so, until browned. If you have any herbs, fresh or dry, like basil, parsley (not cilantro!), thyme or rosemary, you may add a sprinkle of them to the meat while browning for flavor.

2. Add at this point a dash of red wine or Marsala wine, if you want, mix and let sizzle for a couple of minutes to evaporate the alcohol. It will give a fantastic flavor to the sauce.

3. Add the tomato sauce to the meat, lower the flame and let simmer for about 10 minutes to let all the ingredients and flavors blend together and enhance one another. Correct salt and pepper to taste, add if you have some fresh chopped basil or parsley and pour over your favorite pasta together with some Parmigiano cheese.

Tips & Warnings

• Avoid prepared Marinara sauce for this recipe, it's way too spicy and it would overpower the rest of the flavors. Use possibly just any Tomato and Basil.
• The key in any sauce is simple ingredients mixed together for a well balanced combination of flavors.

[AdirondackTrina]

on 4/13/2009 This sounds yummy! Thanks for sharing the recipe and the tricks!Ü

[Cinzia]

on 3/28/2009 Ya, it was tipical in those days. Glad you liked the recipe.

[Mitestarossa]

on 3/27/2009 Yummy spaghetti recipe. My great grandfather was from Turin. He was a blond haired blue eyed Italian that married a black haired English girl. He migrated to this country around 1910 and never allowed his children to speak Italian so that they would acclimate faster.