Our Rendition Of Italian Comfort Food
You’re probably wondering, “Judy’s cooking Italian now?” Well, we do share non-Chinese recipes here on our family blog every now and then, because the reality is, we enjoy cooking non-Chinese food! While we know that’s not what readers are primarily coming here for, they’re still recipes that our family enjoys and wants to document, so we can refer back to them in the future.
Sharing This Meal with Family
My most vivid memory of making what I call, “The Ultimate Meat Sauce” was in Shanghai (of course). A few years ago, we were visiting my cousin and his son in Shanghai. Bill and I offered to cook a “Western” meal for dinner. It was a showing-off type meal, and we did not disappoint. Everyone was full to bursting by the end of it. My cousin’s son Hunter invited us over again a few times after that, and I knew what he had in mind. He was hoping for more spaghetti with meat sauce! Smart boy! I also remembered how expensive it was to make. The majority of the ingredients were imported from outside of China—the herbs/spices, extra virgin olive oil, pasta, red wine, and parmesan cheese. My cousin’s ayi (housekeeper) was helping us in the kitchen, and she remarked on how pricey it was! Which is why we were glad that everyone wolfed it down so heartily—it was worth it. A bowl of pasta tossed with this rich tomato meat sauce is the ultimate meal to share with family and friends. While it’s different from our usual fare on this blog, I felt strongly about sharing it. Here in the Northeast, we crafted this sauce with five pounds of our own ripe garden tomatoes, and it was even better than we remembered!
Important Recipe Notes
Be sure to skim over these quick bullet points below before you get started.- You can make this sauce with any ripe tomatoes. Use beefsteak tomatoes, campari, plum, cherry, grape, etc. Tomatoes from the garden are even better!
- You can choose whether or not to peel the tomatoes. The skin doesn’t bother us, but if you want a smoother sauce, you can peel them by scoring them with an “X” on the bottom, blanching them in boiling water for 30-60 seconds, and transferring them to an ice bath. The peels will come right off.
- Don’t forget to reserve some of your pasta cooking water! You’ll need it to toss everything together at the end. The starch in the cooking water will make the sauce cling to the pasta better, and also give it a silky texture.
- We think this meat sauce tastes better the next day, so we suggest making it a day in advance.
- This recipe makes enough sauce for about 2 pounds of pasta. We usually cook 1 pound of pasta and use half the meat sauce. Then we take the other half of the sauce and put it in the freezer for another day!
Roasted Tomato Meat Sauce: Recipe Instructions
Preheat the oven to 400°F/200°C. Cut the tomatoes into relatively large chunks. If using cherry or grape tomatoes, you can halve them or leave them whole.
Toss the tomatoes with 1 tablespoon salt, 4 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, and 3 cloves of minced garlic. Arrange them in a single layer across two large rimmed baking sheets.
Roast for 1 hour in the middle of the oven, stirring once or twice. The tomatoes should look wrinkled, with slight caramelization on the edges.
About 15 minutes before your tomatoes finish roasting, place a large dutch oven or deep pot over medium high heat. Add 4 tablespoons of olive oil, along with the ground beef and pork. Stir, breaking up the chunks of ground meat into small crumbles. There is no need to brown or crisp them meat—cook just until it turns opaque.
Add the chopped onion and last 3 cloves of minced garlic. Season with salt and pepper, and cook for another 5 minutes.
By now the tomatoes should be done roasting. Add them to the pot, along with all their juices.
Also add the tomato paste, beef stock, red wine, dried oregano, and black pepper, and sugar. Stir and bring to a low boil. Cover, turn down the heat, and simmer for 3 hours. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking. Taste the sauce and adjust seasoning (salt, pepper, sugar) if needed.
At this point, you could serve the sauce with pasta, but we think it tastes best the next day. If you have time for this, allow it to cool, and refrigerate overnight.
When you’re ready to serve, heat the sauce back up on the stove. Boil pasta (we like using spaghetti, but any cut of pasta will work) according to package directions, cooking it for 1 minute less than prescribed. (It will finish cooking in the sauce.)
When the pasta is just under al dente (again, 1 minute less than the minimum cooking time on the package instructions), drain it, reserving about ½-⅔ cup of pasta water.
Immediately add the pasta back to the pot, and ladle in the hot tomato meat sauce, along with about ⅓ cup of hot pasta cooking water. Toss the pasta for 1 minute, giving it time to absorb the liquid from the sauce and cooking water. You’ll see the sauce begin to thicken and cling to the pasta!
Serve the pasta with fresh basil and parmesan cheese, along with an extra drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and cracked black pepper. You could also serve it with a little extra sauce on the top. Enjoy!
NOTE: Recipe card below has both U.S. and metric measurements (see toggle below ingredients list). You can also change the number of servings to adjust recipe amounts.
Recipe
Ultimate Roasted Tomato Meat Sauce
This roasted tomato meat sauce recipe is perfect for showing off sweet late summer tomatoes. Roasting them really takes their flavor to the next level!
Serves: 12
Ingredients
- 5 pounds ripe tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon sea salt (plus more to taste)
- 8 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (divided)
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 6 cloves garlic (minced; divided)
- 1 1/2 pounds ground beef (80% lean, 20% fat)
- 1/2 pound ground pork
- 1 large onion (about 8 oz./225g, finely chopped)
- 6 ounces tomato paste (1 small can)
- 1 1/2 cups beef stock (or water)
- 1/2 cup dry red wine (that you enjoy drinking)
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon sugar (or to taste)
- fresh basil
- parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400°F/200°C. Cut the tomatoes into relatively large chunks. If using cherry or grape tomatoes, you can halve them or leave them whole.
- Toss the tomatoes with 1 tablespoon salt, 4 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar, and 3 cloves of minced garlic. Then arrange them in a single layer across two large rimmed baking sheets.
- Roast for 1 hour in the middle of the oven, stirring once or twice. The tomatoes should look wrinkled, with slight caramelization on the edges.
- About 15 minutes before your tomatoes are done roasting, place a large dutch oven or deep pot over medium high heat. Add 4 tablespoons of olive oil, along with the ground beef and pork. Stir, breaking up the chunks of ground meat into small crumbles. There is no need to brown or crisp them meat—cook just until it turns opaque.
- Add the chopped onion and last 3 cloves of minced garlic. Season with salt and pepper, and cook for another 5 minutes.
- By now the tomatoes should be done roasting. Add them to the pot, along with all their juices. Also add the tomato paste, beef stock, red wine, dried oregano, and black pepper, and sugar. Stir and bring to a low boil. Cover, turn down the heat, and simmer for 3 hours. Stir occasionally to prevent sticking. Taste the sauce and adjust seasoning (salt, pepper, sugar) if needed. (At this point, you could serve the sauce with pasta, but we think it tastes best the next day. If you have time for this, allow it to cool, and refrigerate overnight.
- When you’re ready to serve, heat the sauce back up on the stove. Boil pasta (we like using spaghetti, but any cut of pasta will work) according to package directions, cooking it for 1 minute less than prescribed. (It will finish cooking in the sauce.) When the pasta is just under al dente (again, 1 minute less than the minimum cooking time on the package instructions), drain it, reserving about ½-⅔ cup of pasta water.
- Immediately add the pasta back to the pot, and ladle in the hot meat sauce, along with about ⅓ cup of hot pasta cooking water. Toss the pasta for 1 minute, giving it time to absorb the liquid from the sauce and cooking water.
- Serve the pasta with fresh basil and parmesan cheese on top, along with an extra drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and cracked black pepper. Enjoy!
Tips & Notes:
Nutrition information is for sauce only. Does not include pasta or garnishes.
Nutrition Facts
Calories: 349kcal (17%) Carbohydrates: 14g (5%) Protein: 16g (32%) Fat: 25g (38%) Saturated Fat: 7g (35%) Cholesterol: 54mg (18%) Sodium: 762mg (32%) Potassium: 854mg (24%) Fiber: 3g (12%) Sugar: 9g (10%) Vitamin A: 1796IU (36%) Vitamin C: 30mg (36%) Calcium: 49mg (5%) Iron: 3mg (17%)
