Restaurant Style Meaty Marinara Sauce...

For a while now I have been wanting to try a new spaghetti recipe- one that is hardy, rich, and thick like ones they serve in an authentic Italian restaurants. I wanted something that you could use over spaghetti noodles, in a layered lasagna, or other pasta dishes and I think I have found and perfected the recipe I was dreaming of! I tried it out on my extended family this past week and got rave reviews... give it a whirl at your table, I am sure you will find the same great feedback! I have made it with both ground turkey and ground beef and I have served it over brown rice spaghetti and brown rice penne, either way it's delicious!

Ingredients:

1 onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 TBSP grape seed oil

1 28 oz. can diced tomatoes

2 (6 oz) cans tomato paste

2 tsp. dried basil

2 tsp. dried oregano

2 bay leaves

1 tsp. sugar

1/2 cup red wine

2 lbs. ground meat (turkey or beef)

s & p

Directions:

In a large pot, add your grape seed oil and onion and saute for 2 minutes, then add your minced garlic and let that saute for another minute. Add your ground meat, turkey or beef, season it with salt and pepper and let it brown (I continually break up my meat because I like it really fine in this dish verses big chunks. If you are using beef, drain the fat once it's cooked before adding more ingredients.) Next, add everything else, stir well and let simmer for at least an hour- up to 3 if you have the time. You can also make this in the crock pot by following the same directions- still saute your onion and garlic and cook your meat on the stove- then add everything else to the crock pot to simmer all day long. Either way you choose to cook it, if it gets too thick, you may add up to a cup of water- but start at increments of 1/4 cup until you reach the consistency that you like. One last tip- I don't care for big chunks of tomatoes in this recipe, so I dump the can of diced tomatoes into my Vitamix for a few seconds to get them chopped even finer- and it's perfect!

***NOTE: This is a great recipe to freeze for later so keep that in mind when preparing it- do you want to set half of it aside or double it and keep it on hand for a night when you don't feel like cooking??? This is the perfect recipe for that!!!