INGREDIENTS:
- 255 grams dried spaghetti (9 ounces)
- 100 grams bacon (3.5 ounces)
- 255 grams ground beef (9 ounces)
- 1 small onion diced into 1/8 inch pieces
- 1/2 small carrot peeled and grated
- 2 cloves garlic finely minced
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 400 grams canned whole tomatoes
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon oregano
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Put a large pot of salted water on the stove over high heat. If you taste the water after dissolving the salt it should taste pretty salty. This flavors the pasta. Whatever you do, do not add oil to the water. This is done to keep the noodles from sticking together while boiling, but it will also keep your pasta sauce form sticking to the noodles when you eat it.
- Add the bacon to a pan over medium high heat and fry until a good amount of fat has rendered out of the bacon. Add the ground beef and brown it, breaking up the meat with a spatula until it’s cooked. Transfer the meat to a bowl, leaving as much of the fat as you can in the pan.
- Turn down the heat to medium low. You should have about a tablespoon of rendered fat in the pan, if you have significantly more or less, dump some out or add some olive oil. Add the onions, carrot and garlic, and sauté until the onions are soft and the mixture is about 1/3 of its original volume. Depending on how small you diced your onions, this should take anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes. This is where your sauce gets a lot of its flavor, so don’t skimp on time.
- Turn up the heat to high, then return the meat to the pan. Add the white wine and boil until there’s almost no liquid left, stirring to prevent burning. This not only burns off the alcohol, it concentrates the flavor of the wine.
- Turn down the heat to medium-low and add the canned tomatoes, ketchup, salt and pepper. Put the oregano in the palm of your hand, and then use your other hand to rub the oregano in a circular motion to crush it into a powder before adding it to the pan. Us a spatula to break up the tomatoes, being careful not squirt tomato juice on yourself.
- By now your water should be boiling. Add your pasta and stir during the first few minutes of cooking to keep it from sticking together. I usually boil pasta for 1 minute less than what the package directions say (i.e. 8 minutes instead of 9).
- Your meat sauce is done when your pasta is done. You can either plate the pasta and top with sauce, or personally I like to dump the pasta straight into the sauce and toss it together before serving.
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