Well I am beat, because I just went two rounds in The Spaghetti Wars. Let me tell you, it wasn’t pretty! I was innocently cooking up Sally’s Spaghetti Sauce, and my husband was doing the bread. He noticed the chicken livers being sautéed in butter on the stove.
“What’s that?†he said, pointing at my favorite All Clad pan, where the livers were frying away.
“Meat.†I said, knowing what I was in for.
“What kind of meat?†he said, his voice becoming more alarmed.
I sighed. “Chicken livers,†I said, because I just can’t lie to him (we’ve only been married 5 years).
“There is NO way that I’m eating anything with THOSE in them!†He stated, like I didn’t know THAT already!
So I separated out some sauce for him, because I know he’s a stubborn man. When the sauces were finished, I tasted the one with the livers and it was really good! So I asked him to try a spoonful, so he could give a fork or no fork for this blog post. And do you know what happened?
He refused! (Looking back at it, I’m not sure why I was surprised at this).
A short but powerful marital fight then ensued. I even resorted to tears, but I lost. He wouldn’t even try the sauce. I think I’m married to the most stubborn man on the planet. At least where food is concerned! (But I love him VERY much)
Our daughter Allie also noticed the livers, and was not happy at all about it, but she tried the sauce. She did not give her fork, but this was not a surprise to me as she’s not crazy about any tomato sauces. Our other girl Zoie was blissfully unaware of anything and ate the sauce happily and liked it.
Well, 2 out of 4 isn’t too bad, is it?
…
Tomato or no-tomato? Either way, this day is for you! I knocked out two recipes tonight from NT.
Ground Beef Spaghetti Sauce
Rating: 2 forks (key)
Difficulty:
Easy
Page in NT: 357
Yield & Notes:
- Serves 8
- You really cannot taste the livers in this sauce, especially if you chop them up very fine
- Recipe is easily doubled, tripled, etc. Will freeze well
Ingredients:
2 pounds ground beef (grass-fed is preferable)
1 large onion finely chopped
1 green pepper, finely chopped [TNC: I omitted, we don’t like the flavor]
2 cloves of garlic minced [TNC: not in original recipe, added by me]
1 large can diced tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
1 cup beef stock
½ cup red wine
½ pound chicken livers
2 T butter
1 teaspoon each dried thyme, rosemary, oregano and basil
Sea salt and pepper
Preparation:
Brown meat in a large pot, no need to pour out fat if you’re using beef from grass fed cows. Meanwhile, sauté chicken livers in butter until cooked through. Cut into a fine dice. Add chopped livers and remaining ingredients to the beef, blend well, season to taste and simmer, covered, for about ½ hour.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
The tomato-free sauce is one of my favorite things to eat! Sometimes I add creme freche once on our plates and mix in with a little dill. Either way, it’s so very yummy over rice, pasta, or buttered toast!
It is best to keep hubbies and children out of the kitchen when real foods are being prepared if they are resistant. If you can do it. I have one daughter who LOVES coming in and playing with the chicken feet before they go in the stockpot, or squeezing the heart to see how the blood moved around in it, etc. The rest of the family…not so much. In general, ignorance is bliss and what they don’t know will feed them!
Thanks Debbie… It was a very simple, good sauce. I actually think it would have gotten 4 forks without the rosemary in it. They just don’t like the taste of what they call ‘pine needles’. I thought it was subtle enough myself, but I like the taste of most herbs.
Peggy… I agree, very good advice! I really need to work on that….
Dear Kim.
My instinct is to wish you and your family and friends joy and closeness over this Christmas period, and blessings of health and peace of mind for the new year.
I hope I am not being politically incorrect. If so, please forgive me.
I love cooking and stumbled across your site in my ramblings looking for recipes. Your site is so good. Great layout, not too frilly. To the point with fascinating content. I particularly appreciate the the trouble you take with regards good nutrition. I hope to visit often.
This is the second time ever that I am writing to a site. I wrote into an Australian website a few weeks ago but have had no feedback.
Most of my difficulties stem from incomparable standards. In South Africa most locally produced and canned foodstuffs (vegetables, fruit and jams) come in a 410gr (roughly 14.6oz) can. Tuna comes in a 170gr (roughly 6oz) can. Some jams are available in a 900gr (roughly 32oz) can. Tomato puree is 410gr but concentrated tomato paste comes in 70gr (approx 2.5oz) cans.
An example is in your Spaghetti Sauce recipe (above) where you call for 1 large can of diced tomatoes and 1 small can of tomato paste. Without weights and measures to guide, it becomes impossible to do justice to this recipe.
I have been surfing the web for years and had basically given up on USA recipes for the above reason – until I found your site last night. I would so much like to sample the good fare you spread out before me.
How do you feel about writing the weights and quantities into your recipes for all the ‘Furiners’ please? It would be such a help.
Kind regards
Hugman in Johannesburg
Hugman… thanks so much for taking the time to comment and thanks for following my blog! I am sorry that I didn’t give the ounces of these two cans. I am getting so used to just throwing things in the pot and seeing if they look good, I forget that I should try to provide measurements. Will providing my numbers in ounces / cups / teaspoons / tablespoons be something that you could easily translate over to your measurements? Or are you looking for grams measurements on everything?
Sorry about us self absorbed Americans! We all think that everyone speaks English and drives on the right side of the road, etc. Well I mean not all of us, but you get the idea. I laughed out loud when you wrote ‘Furiners’ — I like your sense of humor. Keep the comments coming, my goal is to write to the widest audience possible.
On the spaghetti sauce… the recipe uses the equivalent of four of your cans of the tomatoes, and two of your cans of the tomato paste. I put Sally’s exact recipe in the blog post, but when I made it I actually halved all of the ingredients. I will edit the post a bit with this information just so we’re all clear. Feel free to email me or comment if you have more questions… thanks so much!
I should try that no-tomato sauce. It sounds like something I’d really enjoy. I don’t like whole, dried rosemary in things either, though I love the taste. I mince fresh rosemary really finely, into a gritty paste, or grind dried rosemary in my mortar and pestle. That allows the flavor to come through without the “roughage”
Wow I just realized I made this the other night without realizing I was following an NT receipe.
I decided to make a bolognaise type meal using the technique of “throw it in a pan and see what happens”.
Sauteed veges (I throw a variety of veges into mine e.g. onion, eggplant, zuchinni, carrot (garlic at last minute), mince (ground beef), a small amount of chicken livers (I had read in NT ages ago about throwing in livers with the mince and thought I would give it a go. It was only a few peices and wasn’t noticable at all. Am going to up the amount next time nb had soaked them in lemon juice overnight – as was making up some liver to eat and freeze at same time), couple cans of tomatos, tomato paste (no measurements just by taste) and worstershire sauce (have found an organic natural ingredients made version) and lots of homemade chicken stock (I prefer chicken stock to beef even though it is a beef dish) let simmer for a few hours (slow cook)
Yum