Kevin’s Spicy Red Sauce
2 28oz cans Muir Glen crushed tomatoes with basil
2 14oz cans Muir Glen diced tomatoes
2 cans Muir Glen tomato paste
1 lb hot Italian sausage
1 large red onion, diced
2 cups crimini mushrooms, stemmed and quartered
1 head (8-10 cloves) garlic, half diced, half smashed.
Red pepper flakes to taste
2 tbls Dried oregano
Olive oil
You are going to need a large pot for this. Several times while I was experimenting with this I used a sauce pan and had to transfer to something larger. But before that, heat 1-2 tablespoons olive oil in a sauté pan over medium high heat. Break up Italian sausage and add to the pan. Brown the meat until most of the fat is rendered and a small bit of carbon appears on the meat. Drain and set aside for now. In the large pot, heat 2-3 tablespoons olive oil to medium heat. Add garlic and red pepper flakes. Sauté for 30-45 seconds, and add the onion and mushrooms. Sauté until the onion is a bit transparent, 5-6 minutes. Don’t worry if it seems a little dry for the mushrooms, they will shed some of their liquid while cooking.
When the onions and mushrooms are done, add the sausage, tomatoes, tomato paste, and oregano. Mix to combine all ingredients, and bring to a simmer. Turn heat down, cover the pot, and simmer for 2 21/2 hours stirring every 30 minutes or so.
Other bits to add
At times I have added several different ingredients to make this basic sauce different. Here are some of them.
-Mild Italian sausage for those who like the flavor without the heat.
-Black and green olives, sliced
-Different mushrooms like Portobello, shitake, and the like.
-Red, green, yellow, orange peppers.
-Zucchini and other squash
This recipe can also be the base for a smooth red sauce. Just omit the sausage, mushrooms and red pepper flakes.
Again, if you make this let me know what you think.
Slainte,
Kevin
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6 comments:
Welcome to the blogging world! ;)
I will have to try this spicy red sauce as my husband loves loves LOVES spicy food. Is it "burn your mouth - turn your face red and hiccup" spicy?
I love your blog with the recipes. I'll have to try the chili one sometime soon. Oh heck - I'll just come up to Tacoma and you can make it for me!!! That way I'll know it will taste good and I won't have to worry about burning it.
Greetings,
It depends on how much red pepper flakes you put into the sauce. If Matt likes more spice, try mincing in two or three chipotles in adobo. You can find those in a can in the latino food section. Chipotles are a smoked jalapeno in a mexican BBQ sauce, for those that don't know.
If you do that, add about a tablespoon of fenel seeds to bring a little more Italian flavor to the spice.
Gosh darnit! You are spoiling my health kick to stick with all Cooking Light recipes for a while by posting these fabulous must try recipes! Do they freeze well?
The sauce freezes great. I've never frozen the chili, we eat it all first. As far as the cooking light thing, the only fatty part of the sauce is the sausage. You can omit that and sill have a good red sauce.
This is great info to know.
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