This is a variation of Lana's Divine Spaghetti Sauce featured on Allrecipes.com. It has my own spin on it. Here is the link to the original recipe:
http://allrecipes.co...uce/detail.aspx
Spaghetti a l'Ashi
Ingredients
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1 pound lean ground beef 24 IKEA Swedish meatballs
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2 (28 ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes
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2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste Instead of those two, use two jars of Bertolli spaghetti sauce, your choice of flavor. Prego works too, but Bertolli is better. If you have the access, use Dave's Gourmet spaghetti sauce. Not easy to get, and it's a San Francisco based company and usually only specialty cooking stores carry them. Oh, they have a website and you can buy them there.... I never tried their website though. ALTERNATIVE: If you like to make your own sauce, use three cans of S&W Italian Recipe Stewed Tomatoes, which can be bought in Costco in bulks. Don't know the size of the can offhand.... The reason I don't use Lana's tomato sauce from scratch is..., it takes too much time!!! You need to cook overnight to achieve perfection. Using my method, you can finish it in as little as an hour if all ingredients are washed, cleaned, chopped and ready to go.
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 4 stalks celery, chopped Ashi's note: this cannot be omitted, I found out by experience. This is the secret ingredient that keeps the sauce divine as it is. If you don't like celery, use two stalks instead of four. Chopped them up finely so no one would be aware of them. Their existence will soak up the acidity level of the sauce, and make the sauce sweeter)
- 2 green bell peppers, chopped
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- 15 fresh mushrooms, sliced
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5 tablespoons Italian seasoning 1/4 cup of Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
- 4 bay leaves Ashi's Note: Turkish bay leaves. California bay leaves don't cut it and are completely different products.
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2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil (I don't use it, but you can)
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3 cloves garlic, minced 12 cloves.
- 1 pound spaghetti (as much as you need! I usually cook a lot!)
- Some olive oil
Following are Ashi-specific formula
- 2 pounds squid or calamari, cut them into strips (Ashi's own formula)
- 2 pounds shrimps with head on (Ashi's own formula)
- Shredded Gruyere cheese (optional)
- LOTS AND LOTS of love
Preparation: (this is very different from Lana's, so please use this version instead of hers)
- Clean the squid and shrimps. Cut the shrimps' heads off, and put them in a large infusion ball. We'll cook squid and shrimps later.
- Grease a large saute pan, probably a 16-18" one, with olive oil (please don't use non-stick. It's not the same) and spread Italian seasoning all over the pan, and turn on high heat. Put the Ikea Swedish meatballs in, sway the pan around so the meatballs are coated with Italian seasonings. Do not let the Italian seasoning to burn. Lower the heat if you suspect it's about to burn. The water from meatballs should keep it from burning, but do be careful. Cook for 1-2 minutes, and put them aside (they don't have to be fully cooked. We're only coating them with Italian seasoning here..)
- Use the same pan, saute 12 cloves of garlic just enough to get the flavor out, take them out and put them in the same infusion ball with the shrimps' heads.
- Cook the pasta sauce (or stewed tomatoes) in the same saute pan, which should still have plenty of Italian seasoning in it (you want it to give flavor to your sauce, so don't dump it!), put the meatballs back in, and turn to medium-low heat.
- Put the bay leaves in the infusion ball and close it. Immerse it in the pasta sauce. Add chili pepper flakes to the sauce.
- In a separate pan, saute the onion and celery. Allow them to be caramelized, then add sliced mushroom, then add chopped bell pepper. Some people (especially with French cooking training) will broil the halved bell peppers in the oven until the skin is burned. Then remove the charred skin by using a French knife in scraping motion..., and then dice them to desired size. For people who don't like bell peppers, that way the bell pepper will be really soft and sweeter. I prefer my bell pepper visible in my sauce, so I don't do that. Bell pepper skin is very nutritious, so another reason not to scrape it off.
- Keep slow cook the sauce for at least an hour. For best result, 4+ hours.
- Cook the spaghetti (or spiral pasta if you like that better) until it's almost done..., and drain the water with a colander. If you think it's already fully or almost fully cooked, "shock it" with cold water, so it doesn't keep on cook through even when it's out of the stove. Shock is not a good cooking method.... It washes away nutrition, so it's the last resort.... It's often used in restaurants because it's easier to control cooking time.
- On a separate saute pan coated with some olive oil, stir fry in high heat one or two servings of shrimps and squid (or whatever the amount you think you can handle at once), adds a ladle full of pasta sauce (per serving) and mix them thoroughly, and then stir fry the almost done pasta (of corresponding serving) until it's fully cooked. That's it. Top it with extra sauce with veggies on the serving plate. Repeat this step if you are serving more than 1-2 servings.
- If you want, add shredded Gruyere cheese on top for final presentation (I don't like Parmesan... Gruyere is creamier).
- ALWAYS COOK WITH LOVE!
Serve with red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon preferred, but any red should be okay).
Bon appetit!
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