Tag-Archive for » Italian «
This is a very easy and tasty spaghetti sauce that you can throw together in about 25-30 Min’s. It has a little longer on the cooking time but that is the easy part just waiting for it to cook down and all the flavours to develop. It is very versatile as it can be used as a spaghetti sauce or like I did the next day to make cannelloni, it would also be a good sauce for lasagne. I served ours with a side salad and some garlic bread, but I have to say my family preferred it the next day when I made a cannelloni and topped with a cheese sauce, with extra grated Parmesan cheese. If you would like to see more photos or read more reviews of this recipe please click here.
Ingredients
Note: I also added mushrooms to ours and adjusted the herbs and spices to suit our taste, so feel free to do the same by adding more or less according to what you like.
Olive oil or cooking spray
1lb Lean ground beef
1 Large onion, thinly sliced
1 Cup celery, diced
1 Large red bell pepper, chopped
3 Garlic cloves, minced
2 Teaspoons dried oregano
2 Tablespoons dried parsley
1(28 ounce) Can diced tomatoes (I used Dei Fratelli Seasoned Diced Tomatoes)
1(6 ounce) Can tomato paste
1/2 Cup red wine (or water)
1 Large bay leaf
1 Teaspoon honey
1 Teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1/2 Red pepper flakes, crushed
1 Teaspoon dried basil
Method
1. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat.
2. Heat olive oil or spray w/oil.
3. Add ground beef, onions. celery, red pepper and garlic.
4. Saute` until beef is no longer pink and veggies are tender, about 10 minutes.
5. Add remaining ingredients and stir well.
6. Bring to a boil and reduce heat.
7. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally for 1-3 hours.
8. If sauce becomes too thick, thin with a little water.
9. Remove bay leaf and serve with your favorite pasta.
All photos taken by me unless otherwise stated.
I found this on Zaar on one of my regular chefs posts and I enjoy making a lot of her recipes so wanted to try this one. It was a throw together meal for her so her suggestion was to play around with spices ect.. which I did. I did not adjust too much as the beauty of this dish is its simplicity with also being a wonderfully flavoured dish. I felt you had to add the capers to make this a traditional Veal piccata (Lemon Veal) This is an Italian dish which I have eaten several times in restaurants, I just never made at home and I have to say at home is best because you can adjust flavours to suit your taste. I have listed the things I added in the ingrediants below but if you want to read more reviews of this and see the original recipe please click here.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
8 veal scallopini (mine were small so I made more so don’t be fooled by 
the photo)
flour, mixed with salt & pepper (I added about 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper)
1 cup chicken broth (I didn’t have this so I used 1 cup water with about 2 teaspoons chicken stock granules.)
1 lemon, juiced
4 Tablespoons dry white wine
1 Tablespoon chopped capers
2 tablespoons butter
1 lemon, sliced for garnish
fresh parsley (to garnish)
Method
1. Mix flour with salt and pepper to taste and cayenne.
2. Dredge veal in flour.
3. In a large skillet heat oil and butter, add scallops to skillet, in batches, cook 2 mins, flip and cook 2 minutes more.
4. Remove to ovenproof plate and place in preheated oven to keep warm.
5. Meanwhile add water, wine and stock to pan, reduce approx half.
6. Squeeze the juice of 1 lemon into broth, reduce until thickened slightly, about 5 Min’s add butter a bit at a time and whisk into sauce to thicken, add chopped capers.
To Serve: I served mine over fresh vegetables cooked in butter and garlic, topped with veal scallops, drizzled with sauce around dish and a little over the top. I served the rest of the sauce in jug on the table.
All photos taken by me unless otherwise stated.
Serves 4
