Granny's Sunday Meat Sauce and Noodles

When you come from a large family, (there were 7 children in our family, and 13 children in my mom's family), the meals need to be hearty enough to fill everyone and easy to adjust the quantity to stretch the portions to go around, yet still be tasty.  Grandma's Sunday meat sauce and noodles was a tasty meal that was served many times.  And it was easy to adjust the portions down for a small family or up for large families.  Let me show you how easy it is to make.  These measurements will feed 4 adults easily.

 You will need:
1 pound of ground beef
2 carrots, chopped
1 celery rib, chopped
1/2 medium onion, chopped
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
3 ounces of mushrooms, slices
1 Tab. olive oil, (if you are using lean meat)
1/2 cup whole milk
Kosher salt / black ground pepper
ground nutmeg / oregano / dried thyme
2 Tabs tomato paste
28 ounces of tomatoes
choice of pasta

 In a dutch oven, over medium heat, cook the ground beef.  Note:  if you are using a lean beef, (i.e.: 90/10, then add 1 Tab of olive oil to the pan).  Sprinkle Kosher salt and pepper over the ground beef.  Cook until no longer pink.

Drain off any fat from the beef.  Then, add 1 Tab of olive oil.
Note: if you had to add olive oil, don't worry about draining off the oil
Add the chopped carrots, onions, celery, mushrooms, and garlic.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.   Cook for approximately 10 or 15 minutes until the carrots and onions have softened.

Add in the oregano, thyme, and nutmeg, and continue cooking for another 5 minutes.

Make a well in the center and add the tomato paste.  Cook and stir in the tomato paste for 5 minutes, (this removes the canned flavor from the tomato paste).

Drain any excess liquid from the tomatoes and using your hands, squish the tomatoes up, then add to the meat mixture.  Stir in the tomatoes.
Note:  I am using tomatoes from my garden, but if you are using canned tomatoes from the store you will want to add 1 Tabs of sugar at this point.

Cover the dutch over and continue cooking over medium-low heat for 1 hour, (making sure to stir every 15 minutes).

 You will notice the sauce had cooked down and is getting thicker.

After 1 hour, stir in the milk.  Continue cooking with the cover off the dutch oven for another 30 minutes.  Meanwhile start a large pot of salted water boiling for the noodles.  Decide what kind of noodle to cook.  You can use spaghetti, wide egg noodles, bow ties, penne, etc.  Tonight, I am using spaghetti.

Taste the meat sauce, for seasoning.  Does it need more salt or pepper.  Maybe a little more sugar?

 Pour the sauce into the serving family sized bowl, (or even leave it in the dutch oven).  Add the cooked noodles, and stir the noodles into the sauce.

Now your meat sauce and noodles are ready to serve.  Just add some grated cheese on top.

A slice of homemade bread, some grated cheese, and dinner is ready.

So yummy, and very filling.

You can make up a double batch of the sauce, and freeze half of it for use later - a real time saver.  And the leftovers for lunch taste even better.