Super Tasty Red Sauce - with Spinach, Olives and Pesto

 I was really making lasagna - and that dish did happen but its for a family gathering in a couple of days. I had left over red sauce, homemade pesto and some spinach. Sounded pretty good to me for pasta. Anyway - it tasted so good I thought I'd better write it down.

The red meat sauce was a bit of a mix today. I used a pound of ground buffalo meat along with a pound of chicken mild Italian sausage (PCC). After this browned in some olive oil, I scooped it out of the pot and then added in a diced onion, leek, and a lonely shallot that had nowhere else to go. I like to cook onions and their ilk slow to soften, not burn. I add a little salt and pepper too. After the onion mixture is starting to get a little golden (and soft!) I add 3 cloves of chopped garlic. When the garlic gets aromatic, I add back in the meat and then follow that up with two 24 oz cans of crushed whole tomatoes and one jar of marinara sauce. I usually wash out the cans and jar with about a cup of water, adding that back into the sauce as well. I went out and gathered some fresh herbs - a little rosemary, oregano (which is a little scarce at the moment) and thyme- chopped them up and threw that into the pot as well. If the herbs are all somewhat the same length I often just tie them up into a bundle and simmer that with the sauce.

The red sauce simmered on really low for probably a couple of hours.

With what I had left over from making the lasagna was just enough to use for dinner. I also had a nice handful of spinach, a little bit of garlic, and some olives that sauteed up very nicely. I added a good sized dollop of pesto to the cooked spinach and olives - and stirred that into (with a little parmesan) the pasta. I dished up the pasta, added the sauce on top - and that was it. Delicious.

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