What kid doesn’t like pasta?  My kid’s favorite spaghetti sauce is from Patricia Well’s Trattoria cookbook, a collection of well written, easy to follow Italian recipes, nothing too fancy just delicious, homestyle classic meals.  Meat sauces (Ragu’) generally require hours of cooking but this recipe calls for simmering for approximately 20 minutes.  It has lots of flavor and tastes fresh and light.  You start with a onions, carrots and celery which gives the sauce  sweetness which appeals to kids.  Over the years I have tweeked the recipe a little..like adding butter and basil to finish the sauce, yum.

So if you are looking for a meat sauce with kid appeal, look no further, this is it!

A little Dino to put you in the pasta mood:

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The 3Jamigos Favorite Pasta Sauce #1

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Keyword pasta, Ragu'

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 35 minutes minutes

Servings 1 .5 quarts

Ingredients

• 1 small yellow onion chopped finely almost minced
• 1 carrot peeled chopped finely almost minced
• 1 stalk of celery chopped finely almost minced
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1/4 cup italian parsley chopped
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 -1 tsp chili flakes omit if using spicy Italian sausage
• 8- 12 ounces of a mix of ground beef ground pork and ground veal or you can use 50/50 beef and italian sausage, spicy or mild
• 1/4 cup vermouth or dry white wine
• olive oil
• 2 28 ounce cans of tomatoes San Marzano or domestic, Muir Glen

Instructions

• I use a food processor to finely chop the vegetables. Heat olive oil in saucepan (min 4 quart size), add onion, carrot, celery, parsley & salt; saute 3-4 minutes until fragrant and soft, add garlic cook additional minute. Add ground meats, cook over medium low heat, until meat is no longer pink. Break up any chunks of meat with a spatula while cooking. Add vermouth and continue to cook for 3-4 minutes.
• Puree tomatoes using food processor or a food mill. Do not over process, bits of tomatoes are fine, texture is good.
• Add tomatoes to pan along with chili flakes. Simmer 20 minutes, until slightly thickened. If you like a thicker sauce, leave uncovered, if not, partially cover during simmer. Taste for seasoning.
• Just before serving add 2 T butter and 1/4 cup julienned or chopped fresh basil.

Notes

Variations: Addition of 1/4 cup finely diced pancetta to ground meats, adds smokiness to dish.
Instead of butter, finish off sauce with 1/4 cup heavy cream.