Quick and Dirty Spaghetti Recipe

I have always been good at this one dish. I love it to pieces and have my spaghetti down to a fine science.

Recently I have been trying to get around to cooking more often, so today I made some for friends.

I didn't have time to do my all-night batch from plain tomatoes, so I went with quick and dirty from tomato sauce.

I never use recipies, but since I'm on a push to learn and change I figured I might as well solicit input, and perhaps discover ways I can make my favorite dish even better.

Note:

I like avery full-flavored spaghetti, so my style is probably not for people who like food on the bland side.

Ok, first of all, I hit up a grocery store.

I bought:

Stuff

ground beef (get good meat, it makes a difference)
some ground sausage
tomato sauce
tomato paste
diced tomatoes
garlic cloves
onions
basil
oregano
minced roasted garlic
olive oil
bay leaves
worchestershire sauce
brown sugar
spaghetti (picking the right spaghetti makes a world of a difference)
pitted and diced olives
sliced mushrooms
pepper

Steps

Fire up a pot, and coat it with olive oil

Drop in the frozen meat. I like to use frozen meat because of how some will be nice and crispy and some will be tender. I also have my routine down with frozen meat, and not thawed (never have time for enoughonions and garlic).

Dice half of an onion (faily coarse) and drop it in with the meat with a pinch of salt. The idea is for the flavor to exchange early. The onions lose a lot of taste into the meat and they absorb a lot of taste as well (I like onions, they are great drawing boards for taste).

I add a study looking bay leaf, oregano, basil, roasted minced garlic, and pepper. I need these onions to carry the sauce.

Then I get to the garlic cloves, and peel and slice as many as I have time for.

I add these in the meat, the whole while shaving off the cooked meat from the frozen chunk.

As the meat is nearing a finish I dice the rest of the onion, going for fine this time.

I add this, when all the meat is barely browned.

Now is the important part, the meat needs to be perfect before the sauce comes into play.

I add a line of worchestershire sauce, the mushrooms and olives (I add before the sauce so that the liquid they sit in can burn off).

I open all the tomato sauce cans while I'm letting the mouisture burn off the meat. I like the meat a bit crisp before the sauce starts.

Now I add the tomato sauce, dices tomatoes and tomatoe paste with a pinch of brown sugar, more garlic and onions, oregano, basil, a fresh bay leaf and a line of olive oil (if the meat wasn't too oily).

Now it needs salt to taste and as much simmering time as you can afford. I like the sauce thick, not runny at all and there should be some dark red oil floating at the top.

If I'm having a runny sauce emergency I'll add a tablespoon of grated parmesean to absorb it but that usually means spaghetti failure already.

Anywho, now it's time for the spaghetti. I boil water with olive oil and salt. Both are crucial. The salt is both for taste as well as getting the water temperature right. The oil is to avoid clumping.

Stirring it in is very important, the first minute is clump or die.

I usually add a bit of oregano at this stage too, it's more for looks when it drains than anything else.

Note for Americans: American pasta is almost always woefully overcooked. I've found that I much prefer al dente. Find out what you like, this may make a big difference.

Then I eat the "I can't wait plate" and let the sauce keep simmering while I eat. As long as it doesn't burn or dry cooking it won't hurt so I usually leave it for a few hours if I have a crock pot handy.

Anywho, this is the quick and dirty version. Any thoughts on how I can improve it?