Tracy Cooks in Austin: pasta sauce

I could eat pasta every meal, easily. I love a red meat sauce. I wanted to do a quick, easy, no fry, just dump and cook version of my other pressure cooker recipe, this is it.

**On a side note, I recently bought the Ninja Storm off QVC of all things and I absolutely love this thing, super easy, small but big capacity, has great power and it actually does everything it's supposed to. IF you're in the market for a blender... consider this thing. No, I don't get compensation for any recommendation, but for the price, it's pretty sweet.

TRACY'S PRESSURE COOKER RED MEAT SAUCE

INGREDIENTS

1 onion
1 carrot
1 rib of celery
2-3 garlic cloves
1 lb meat of your choice (beef, pork, chicken, or any combination)
1 24oz jar crushed tomato
salt, pepper, bay leaves, oregano,
whatever herbs or flavorings you like in your pasta sauce, i.e. basil, sage
tomato paste
water

INSTRUCTIONS AND METHOD

Chop up the onion, celery and carrot till it's small. Throw it in the pressure cooker bowl. Chop up the meat as well and throw that in.

Dump it all in the pressure cooker bowl, chop some garlic and add a couple fresh bay leaves and a some dried oregano, add pepper... lots

Add a big blob? (I use about half a little can ) of tomato paste, and a jar of crushed tomatoes, add a little water to make it sort of loose like the picture, you don't want it soupy ut you need it pretty moist.

Lock and load, high pressure, 20 minutes. You can release immediately or leave it, it doesn't matter either way.

You can scoop off the little bit of fat on the top, or not, I don't, just stir it in and leave it on warm if you're eating shortly or leave it to cool and shove in the fridge or freezer... it's delicious, thick, rich, deeply flavored and easy as heck to do...

Serve over your favorite pasta, add cheese... eat

Go make this!

/enjoy

Simply, I really like pasta.

This is how I do what I do when I have meat and tomatoes and want to make a potful of sauce to use as a topping for homemade pasta, in rolls with cheese, in lasagna, over meatballs, over rice (really, it's good) or just to use as an ingredients in a fritatta, on a pizza or anywhere else something meaty, tomatoey and yummy needs to be included.

I like simple, basic and delicious. I don't add a million things, I add a few ingredients, they all play a role and the end result is a beautiful thing.

It's not a marinara, it's not a bolognaise, it's just my meat sauce and I've been asked to share it with you.

First... here's some of my doodles that are going to become part of an art quilt I'm doing...

Back to the reason we're all here:

Tracy's BASIC Meat Sauce

There's no amounts, this isn't a recipe. I was asked how I make my sauce and this is how I do it.

Today:

2 1/4 lbs of ground beef so that's what's in it.
Chopped onion, 1 gigantic one
Chopped celery, a couple of inches of the bunch
Garlic, lots
Tomato paste in a tube
sugar if you need it
Salt, pepper, oregano, bay leaf
Large tin of crushed tomatoes
Jar of marinara or other tomato sauce
Bacon fat :)

Melt a little fat in the pressure cooker and shush around your onion and celery until it's lovely and soft and scented and lightly brown on the edges. Remove it from the pot

Add in ground beef and fry it hard and hot until it's well browned, add the oregano, it's best if you fry it with the meat. Then add the SLIVERED garlic, look how paper thin my pampered chef slicer works!! I love that thing.

When the meat is brown, add the garlic and shush it around until you smell it, then add a squeeze of tomato paste and fry around until it's dark. Add the veggies back, add the can of tomatoes and the jar of sauce. Add some salt and pepper and a pinch of sugar if the tomatoes are too harsh.

Lock and load for 25 minutes on high pressure.

Enjoy the thick, meaty, delicious, simple, delightful, rich, tart and savory sauce that emerges from it's darkness. Serve it on anything, under anything, with anything or just piled thickly on heavily buttered bread fresh from the oven as cooks treat. My favorite! Tonight, Connor and I made homemade Pappardelle and tossed it in a little of this super yummy, super rich, super delicious sauce and topped it with a little shaved Parmesan.

Yeah, it was good. Very very good.

Here's the quickie crusty Italian loaf I made by hand to go with dinner. We smothered it in sauce, to test if it was poison of course.

I cooked the pasta about 2 minutes then tossed it in some sauce with a little pasta water added just to coat it then added just cheese for Connor and a little extra meat sauce then a little cheese for me.