Zach Sauce or Meat Sauce

Eat this with pasta, alone as chili, or on some nice bread. Winter, summer, doesn’t matter. This is an excellent staple to almost any pantry.

Ingredients

  • 1 pound of Some sort of ground protien except fish (meatload mix, ground beef, ground turkey, jack fruit shredded, etc)

  • 1 packet of italian salad dressing powder mix

  • 1 yellow onion

  • 3 cloves of garlic

  • 1 small can tomato paste (optional - I do this but zach does not)

  • 1 large jar store bought tomato sauce or 1 quart home made tomato sauce

  • Siracha to taste (optional - I do this but zach does not)

  • Parmesean cheese to taste (optional - I do this but zach does not)

  • Salt and Pepper to taste

Assembly

Dice the onion and the garlic and place into a large hot pan to cook until soft and translucent. I put a tiny bit of oil in to keep them from burning although a little char flavor is nice for the sauce.

Add the protein and the italian seasoning packet

Using a potato masher to “mash” together the protien, seasoning, and onion / garlic until cooked dark brown into crumbles but not crispy, just juicy dark brown. (at this point I add a whole can of tomato paste and mash in - zach does not)

Add a large jar of your favorite jarred or homemade tomato sauce and stir. For looser sauce add more tomato, for thicker add less. Stir all togehter and set to simmer.

At this point I add the siracha and the parmesean and start the tasting process. Once the flavor is almost there add salt and pepper to finish and elevate.

Simmer as long as you like. The longer the richer the flavor.

To Serve

Serve with fresh bread, pasta of your choice, or in a bowl with salad and bread on the side.

It keeps fantastically. Day two reheated is many times better than day one.