My SlowCook Italian Tomato Meat Sauce for Spaghetti

[Davy]

1 lb. 93% lean or ground round hamburger
1 large 28 oz. can Contadina crushed tomatoes
1 6 oz. can Contadina tomato paste
1 large or 2 medium onions, finely chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 tspn. ground oregano
1 tspn. Italian seasoning
1 tspn. ground Basil
1 tspn. black ground pepper
1/2 tspn. garlic salt
1/2 tspn. sugar
3 bay leaves, unbroken
1 box angel hair spaghetti pasta
1 package Parmesan shredded cheese


1. Coat skillet with couple tablespoons of olive oil on medium heat. Add garlic and allow to slightly brown. Then add onion and hamburger and cook till meat is browned.

2. Add cans of tomato sauce to crock pot set to High. Add about half of the large can full of water.

3. Add hamburger, garlic, onion mixture to crock pot. (can drain off the fat of the hamburger, but if you use real lean hamburger, I think draining is optional).

4. Add spices and bay leaves (leave unbroken)

5. Add 1 cup of red wine, or red wine vinegar.

6. Cook on High for 2 hours. After 2 hrs., remove bay leaves.*

7. Continue cooking for 3 hours on high, or 6 to 9 hours on Low. Prepare angel hair pasta per box directions and spread sauce over pasta. Sprinkle shredded Parmesan cheese over serving.

* (The secret to using spices is to know your spices. Bay leaf is a strong tasting spice, so you only want to leave them in the mixture for a certain amount of time to get what you need from them. So don't forget to remove them after a couple of hours.)

 

[Davy]

By the way, this tomato sauce recipe is my attempt to copy a tomato sauce in a little one fork restaurant in Torrejon Villiage, Spain when I was in the military in Europe. Spain had a wonderful restaurant rating system, using forks. A one fork was the lowest and a five fork was the best (and most expensive).

The one fork didn't mean bad food quality at all though, just that it might be a small mom-pop operation with old ArtDeco furniture and sealed concrete floors, but clean. Ironically this place was called 'The Spaghetti House' because it was so close to the air base, and mostly G.I.'s would eat there. Still the best tomato meat sauce I've ever eaten.

Spain's restaurant rating system of forks involved a book each restaurant had to keep by law that a customer could write in, whether good or a complaint. Libro de Reclamaciones I believe it was called, 'Book of Reclamations' literally. The Guardia Civil would come by once a month and ask for the book, and based on that give the restaurant its fork rating. This made the restaurant quality in Spain very strict and beneficial for the customer. My Spanish girlfriend kept picking at a waiter in one cafe we ate at; I had just pulled a 12 hour shift so I was real hungry, had a real succulent roast beef and salad with Romain lettuce, red wine, etc., perfect, I saw no... problems with food or service. So I asked why she was giving the waiter such a hard time, and she said something like, "You don't understand. The people are poor, so when they do eat out, they expect everything to be perfect." "Oh, I said".

So this sauce recipe isn't just something thrown together overnight. It's something I've worked on for years to try and copy that great tomato-meat sauce at The Spaghetti House in Spain.