meat sauce

Natasha Kravchuk presents this meat sauce as her homemade spaghetti sauce. She credits her sister Svetlana with sharing the recipe and describes making it for family and friends.

The selected version uses ground beef, yellow onion and garlic with tomato paste, crushed tomatoes and tomato sauce. Dried oregano and dried basil season the mixture, and sugar is offered to balance the tomatoes’ acidity.

Olive oil is heated in a Dutch oven or deep skillet. The beef is broken apart as it cooks and seasoned with sea salt and black pepper, then the diced onion cooks in the same pot until soft and translucent.

Garlic and tomato paste are stirred into the beef and onion before the dried herbs and remaining tomatoes are added. The sauce comes to a boil, then simmers gently under a partly closed lid until thickened and rich.

Kravchuk offers the warm sauce with cooked pasta. Her spaghetti serving can be finished with grated Parmesan and chopped parsley; she also suggests the sauce as a filling or topping for other pasta dishes.