Mom's Crowd-Pleasing Spaghetti
Written By: Anneke Toliver
(as long as you're not actually Italian)
We are not Italian. My family background has a pretty good representation of countries, but I’m pretty sure Italy isn’t in there anywhere. But pasta… it’s one of the most comforting of food groups. Slurpy noodles (in my opinion, pasta isn’t as comforting if the noodles aren’t slurpy) and all the sauce. And cheese. Of course, cheese.
I grew up eating my Mom’s version of spaghetti often. I remember being told by someone who does have an Italian background that it’s not the correct way to do spaghetti, but I truly do not care.
It’s the way I learned to eat spaghetti, and now my kids eat it the same way.
We have several different pasta and sauce combinations that we eat and enjoy, but this is for sure the favorite.
I learned to make it by helping my mom, and I’m certain I’ve never written it down. But I’m going to try.
Secret Heijermans Family Spaghetti
Ingredients:
1 pound lean ground beef
1 pound Italian sausage
(I’ve added this more recently; my mom always used just ground beef. I wonder how she would feel about adding sausage…)
1 large onion, chopped
3-5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 green pepper, chopped
1 container mushrooms, chopped or sliced
1 small can tomato paste
1 28 oz. can chopped or crushed tomatoes, depending on how chunky you want the sauce
2 28 oz. cans tomato sauce
(sometimes I throw in jarred pasta sauce instead)
Palmful of dried oregano
Palmful of dried basil
Dash of sugar
A few shakes of crushed red pepper flakes
Salt & pepper to taste
Directions:
Brown meat. Add veggies and sauté together for a few minutes.
Add tomato paste; mix in and cook for a minute or two to deepen the flavor.
Add in spices.
(Fresh herbs can be substituted if you like. If I use fresh, I usually add a bit more right before I serve it.)
Stir in tomatoes and sauce, mix thoroughly, then turn down the heat and let it simmer away.
As you can see, the measurements aren’t exact and there’s a lot of room to make it your own. Just taste it along the way and add more of whatever you think it needs. The sauce can be served right away or left to simmer for a few hours—it gets better with time. Just stir it every once in a while.
Serve with your choice of pasta (I use thin spaghetti) and a good pile of freshly grated Parmesan. Crusty bread and salad optional but highly recommended.
Maybe not truly Italian, but truly delicious.
Kitchen Essentials: Spaghetti Edition
Here are some of my kitchen essentials—I use these tools (or something similar) often!
A Dutch Oven is essential to any kitchen. This will bake delicious bread and add more flavor to any soup or stew or sauce you choose to throw at it.
While I’m a total sucker for warm, sunny skies, I do love curling up by the fire with a hot cup of something and a good book, and I’ll take advantage of any excuse to spend my day in leggings and a hoodie. (Notice the constant presence of some sort of heat source?) But I have to say, winter’s biggest saving grace is the food. Soups, stews, fresh baked bread. Ultimate comfort food—which is pretty important when we’re freezing our tushies off.