Italian Cooking

Thought of Italian cooking today... I was contemplating whether to have cream sauce or tomato sauce for my angel hair pasta. Finally I made some really saucy and delicious tomato sauce and add my favorites to it. I have some fresh basil leaves that we got from Publix and I tot of making a good use of it... I could have made some garlic bread but unfortunately we were out of bread. So we just had angel hair pasta with tomato sauce. hmmm.. delicious! The sauce may be refrigerated for up to one week or frozen for up to 6 months. I'm already thinking of having ricotta cheese ravioli with the leftover sauce... hmmm a good idea! hehe.... :)

Recipe:

1 pound lean ground beef
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 onions, chopped
1 (8 ounce) can sliced mushrooms
1 green bell pepper, sliced thinly
1 cup black olives, chopped coarsely
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
2 (14.5 ounce) cans diced tomatoes
2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
1 tbsp dried thyme
1 1/2 tbsp dried oregano
1 1/2 tsp dried basil ( I used fresh basil about 1 tbsp, minced)
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tbsp white sugar
1 cup water
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
salt and black pepper to taste

Saute onion and garlic in the olive oil over medium heat until translucent, but not brown and stir in ground beef. Cook until beef is no longer pink. Drain into a large colander to drain grease.

To a large saucepot, add tomato sauce, tomatoes, tomato paste, mushrooms, green bell pepper, black olives, sugar, water and stir well. Pour the meat mixture into the pot. Lastly season with thyme, oregano, basil, salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, lower the heat to just bubbling, stirring occasionally for 30 minutes.

Serve immediately over cooked angel hair pasta or other Italian pasta and top with parmesan cheese. :)