Saturday Sauce^{14}

Mr. Social Media just left with both of the kids to go skiing for the day.  I’ve decided to spend the day rearranging and purging the kids’ rooms.  I’ve enlisted help.  I have a plan.  This is a first-week-of-the-year kind of project!  While I’m up to my elbows in clothes that don’t fit and broken toy bits. . . please enjoy this re-published post from the way back beginning of breida with a b.
This post was originally published in the Spring.   Since most of you are new since then and since I made this sauce yesterday (it was actually on a Saturday!) I thought I would send it out to you again.

*By the way – I walked in from the grocery store last night at 5:00pm and we were eating by 6:00pm.  It’s simple, quick, and easy. 

This is not Sunday Sauce.  Let’s call it. . . Saturday Sauce.  And I really did make it on Saturday (this week).  You can really make this any day of the week.  It’s simple and (relatively) quick.  I’m not Italian.  I am, in fact, so not Italian that I only know the term “Sunday Sauce” because I once overheard it on line at the grocery store.  I’m not kidding.  And, honestly, if you are Italian or you have any kind of strong opinions about how spaghetti sauce must be made, then you should probably look away now.  I’m Irish.

Are you still with me?

On with the sauce, then.  This can be made either on the stove top in a large skillet or in your slow-cooker.  It doesn’t need to cook all day in the slow-cooker but it can.  I’ve started putting my crock pot meals in the crock the night before (if you know me at all you know that I really don’t function well in the morning) and sticking them in the fridge.  That way all I have to do in the morning is plug that thing in.  I can manage that.  Mostly.

This will be the stove – top version.  You’ll see how quick and easy it is.

Ingredients:

2 cans RedPack petite diced tomatoes

2 cans tomato sauce

meat products of your choice

chicken stock

seasoning: salt, garlic powder, basil, oregano, crushed red pepper flakes

A word here about the meat.  You can choose whatever kind of meat you want to put into the sauce OR you could choose to skip it.  Some people in my family are bigger meat eaters than others but there are no vegetarians here.  Even those of us who don’t really want a lot of meat with our own dinners, don’t mind that the sauce is cooked with meat in it.  When I first started making this sauce I used ONE link of real (pork) sweet sausage -crumbled- and about 8 ounces of ground turkey.  My current version – the one I’m explaining here- uses 3 links of chicken sausage and a dozen turkey meatballs.  My kids are a lot bigger than they used to be.

You can use nonstick for this but the result will be better with cast iron or stainless.

First put your largest skillet on a medium-high flame with just a little olive oil.  We are pretty focused on keeping things healthy around here and I like to use an olive oil sprayer (the kind where you put in your own olive oil and it sprays without propellant. . .).  You really don’t need very much as you actually want the sausage to stick just a little.  Next slice up your sausage and add it to the pan.  Cook and stir them occasionally until you have some nice brown bits on the bottom of the pan.  Try not to let the brown bits go all the way to black – adjust the heat down if you need to.

If you’ll be adding meat balls, now is the time.  We really like these Shady Brook Farms Turkey Meatballs.  Give them a try  if you can find them.  (Does that sound like a commercial?  I wish!)

Now, use about a half cup of chicken stock to deglaze the pan.  If you’ve never done that – it’s easy.  Just pour it in and as it sizzles up – use a wooden spoon to dislodge all of the tasty brown bits from the bottom of the pan.  That gives the sauce a lot of it’s flavor.  Now just add in all 4 cans of tomato and use the seasonings to taste.

All of that should really only take about 10 minutes.  The rest is just letting it cook down until it is the thickness that you want it to be.  You can do this quickly – if you’re willing to stay near by and stir frequently- or you can put it on a slow simmer.

That’s it.  Saturday Sauce from an Irish girl.  I hope I haven’t offended anyone’s sauce sensibilities!  This sauce is very easy to make and it freezes well.  Give it a try and let me know if your family enjoys it as much as mine does.

I have linked this post to:

 Latest & Greatest Friday at Days of Chalk and Chocolate

Creative Me at The Southern Institute

By Breida Category: Cooking, Kids