I tried to stick pretty much to the recipe as I was building this sauce. I did add a carrot since it seemed like it would go well with the celery and onion, but no other additions were made. Carrot just feels like such a natural companion of onions and celery in the pot. It's mirepoix! A classic sauce/soup foundation.
It felt like way too many tomatoes going in -- a whole large tin of diced tomatoes and a large tin of tomato sauce? Really?! -- but I stuck to what it said. My tin of tomato sauce was slightly smaller than the one called for in the recipe, but I couldn't find any that were exactly right and I didn't want to open a second tin just to use <1/3 of it. Besides, there's already so much tomato in this recipe! I think it'll be fine.
The original original recipe (from the blog author's mother) calls for "1 can of beef broth (condensed!)". Her write-up simply asks for "1 15-ounce can of beef broth". No mention of how concentrated it should be. Around here beef broth usually comes in a can or a carton. The cartons are not condensed. The cans are. But the cans are also only 284mL (10 fluid ounces). I'm not sure whether they just get larger cans there or whether she was using some variety of non-condensed beef broth or what. I decided to just go with one 284mL can of condensed broth. Hopefully that's alright.
The last change I made was to completely omit the salt. I usually halve the salt called for in recipes from American authors. In my experience using the full amount of salt results in a dish that is nearly inedible. The idea of adding any salt at all to this recipe made me nervous though. It already has tomato sauce (which contains sugar and salt) and beef broth (very salty). The sauce is still simmering on the stove right now, but after tasting it, I think that leaving out the extra salt -- a whole teaspoon! -- was the right call. Honestly, I think I probably should've halved the sugar as well. It is very sweet. I thought 2 Tbsp. seemed like a lot of sugar, but I was trying not to deviate too far from the recipe. And it is meant to be an American-style sauce after all.
I think I will want to tweak this a bit more if/when I make it again though. Maybe it's not really American-style if it's not full of sugar and salt, but I think it still could be. I think the tomato-y, beef-y spirit of the recipe could be preserved while scaling back the sugar and salt to more tolerable levels. And, while I'm tweaking anyway, I think it'd be nice to trade out a portion of the black pepper for a touch of crushed chili flakes. Nothing major, just something to give it another layer of flavour and a tiny bit of heat.
American-Style Spaghetti Sauce
Adapted from Foodie Crush
Ingredients
- 450g lean ground beef
- 1 onion, chopped
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 ribs celery, chopped
- 1 carrot, peeled and chopped fine
- 5 cloves
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 (156mL) can tomato paste
- 1 (800mL) can diced tomatoes
- 1 (680mL) can tomato sauce
- 1 (284mL) can condensed beef broth
- 2 (284mL) cans sliced mushrooms, drained
- 1 c. red wine
- 1/4 c. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
- 2 tsp. chopped fresh basil
- 1 tsp. dried oregano
- 1 Tbsp. sugar
- 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
- 1/4 tsp. red chili flakes
Directions
- Brown the beef over medium heat.
- Add the onion, garlic, celery, and carrot and cook until vegetables soften (5-7 minutes).
- Add cloves and bay leaves and cook for another minute or so.
- Stir in tomato paste an allow for another 1-2 minutes of cooking.
- Stir in remaining ingredients.
- Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered for 3-4 hours.
- Serve by mixing cooked spaghetti into the sauce and then dishing up individual portions.
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