Sarasota's Spaghetti Sauce

Total Time: 1 hr 15 mins Preparation Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 1 hr

Ingredients

• 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes (san marzano or any good quality italian tomato, or if you can't find any, hunts or a similar brand w)
• 2 (15 ounce) cans tomato sauce
• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 1/2 cup red wine (cabernet or merlot works great)
• 1 cup vegetable broth (or you can use water)
• 1 medium onion, fine diced (if you want more onion flavor, just use a large onion)
• 2 teaspoons garlic (again, add more or less according to your taste, i use 3 teaspoons)
• 1 tablespoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley (fresh please, it really makes a difference)
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1 pinch red pepper flakes
• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar (at the end of cooking)
• 1 teaspoon olive oil (to saute onion and garlic)
• salt
• pepper
• fresh basil, fine chopped
• 1 lb ground meat (beef, turkey, chicken, sausage or any combination, you can also use diced lamb sausage as well. if y)
• 1 cup vegetables, fine diced (celery, peppers, red or green bell, spicy such as jalapeno, cubenelle, banana, etc. any of your favo)
• 2 cups fresh mushrooms, rough chopped (you will use more mushrooms than the other vegetables because they cook down more)

Recipe

• 1 note: this can easily be done in a crock pot, but be sure to brown any meat prior to adding it to the crock pot. also, it is not necessary -- but, i really prefer to saute the onion, garlic or any other vegetables too.
• 2 base flavor -- add the olive oil to a big pot over medium heat and add the onion, garlic, and red pepper flakes and saute about 4-5 minutes until tender. add the wine to deglaze.
• 3 * if you plan to use a more vegetable based sauce, just add a little more olive oil and saute all the vegetables at once.
• 4 tomatoes -- add in all the tomatoes (juice and all) and the broth (or water), sugar, basil and oregano. i reduce the heat to medium low, cover and simmer 60 minutes (30 minutes if you are in a hurry), depending on your time frame. if you like the sauce a little thicker, just remove the cover so the sauce can evaporate a bit.
• 5 * at this point, after you added all the tomatoes and seasoning, add your meat back in if you are preparing a meat sauce.
• 6 finishing -- when the sauce is done, add in the red wine vinegar, simply "wakes-up" the sauce, and don't forget to add the fresh parsley. also check for any additional seasoning - salt and pepper and i love to add some fresh chopped basil (optional) and cook, another 3 or 4 minutes.
• 7 serve -- just enjoy with your favorite pasta, meatballs, etc., and top with your favorite grated fresh cheese.