Homemade Spaghetti sauce

made in crockpot

For June's post I'm sharing my homemade spaghetti sauce recipe.  This is my family's recipe from my mom that I grew up with, learned to make in my teens and have made for my family ever since.   My mom always used canned tomatoes, plus sauce and paste and I did that for years but I've changed it up the last few years, adding more fresh vegetables (chopped kale or spinach, shredded zucchini, onions, garlic, sweet peppers and eggplant) and using only fresh tomatoes or ones I've canned myself instead of buying cans at the store.  I still use canned tomato sauce (although this year I'm going to attempt to make my own sauce) and paste, it's hard to replace the convenience of those. I also use a combination of fresh herbs from my yard and dried herbs.  I love growing herbs and have pots of thyme, oregano, parsley, several kinds of basil, sage, several kinds of mint, lemon balm, lemon grass, dill, rosemary and cilantro, I think that's it.  I go out in my yard and pick what I need, wash, cut and throw in whatever I'm making. At peak season in the summer when they are all huge, I make pesto and freeze it for pasta dishes or pizza later.  I shared my pesto recipe on another blog post. I brown hamburger meat in the skillet and then add shredded or finely chopped eggplant and cook it in the meat juices then add it to the pot of sauce.  Eggplant is great, it takes on the flavor of the meat and is healthy plus stretches 1 pound of meat to 2 so economical as well.  I use it all the time.  I get them at the farmers market, finely cut them up (most of the time I peel them 1st then they are hidden) and put them in quart freezer bags in my freezer.  I just break up what I want and add to whatever I'm cooking.  This is the cook for hours version to get the desired thickness and rich taste so I usually do it on a Saturday on the stove for 3 to 4 hours or in the crock pot all day.  I cook a large batch then freeze half of it for later.  It freezes beautifully. Most of the time we eat it the traditional way over a plate of spaghetti topped with parmesan cheese. Sometimes when I thaw a container of sauce from the freezer I make a pasta casserole with whatever kind of pasta I have, like shell or rigatoni, layering with shredded cheddar cheese and spinach or kale (fresh or frozen spinach or frozen kale from my baggies in the freezer) and either bake in oven for 30 minutes or heat in microwave 10 to 15 minutes until bubbly. It's a great quick meal for a weekday supper. Here's the recipe:






Spaghetti sauce






1 to 2 lbs ground beef, browned and drained (can also add ground pork or Italian sausage to beef)
1/2 to 1 c chopped eggplant, (brown in skillet after meat is cooked)
4 to 6 fresh tomatoes, chopped (or 2 cans)
1 onion, chopped
1 to 2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 c sweet peppers, chopped
1/2 c shredded zucchini
2 small cans tomato sauce
2 small cans tomato paste
2 T sofrito (recipe on another blog post)
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1 to 2 t each, seasoned salt, pepper, turmeric and paprika
1 T each fresh or dried herbs, sweet basil, oregano, marjoram and parsley (can also add Italian seasoning)
1/4 t chili pepper flakes
can also add chopped fresh or frozen spinach or kale toward end of cooking






In large pot sauté veggies, except tomatoes in a little olive oil and water until tender.  Add tomatoes, cooked meat, eggplant, sauce, paste plus herbs and seasonings with several cups of water. Bring to boil then simmer, uncovered, 2 to 4 hours until thickened, or cook in crockpot 8 to 10 hours on high.  Serve on cooked noodles topped with parmesan cheese.  Enjoy, Bamah

made on top of stove