Dad’s Dish

Are you planing to visit your father this Sunday? Why not take him a huge pot of spaghetti? It is a popular dish among men; it is meaty, it is sloppy and fun to eat, and you can make it sweet, spicy or Italian style. I know of some men who like spaghetti with barbecue sauce and ribs on the side.

To make a good pot of spaghetti this is what you do:

Dice at least one rib of celery, dice a quarter of an onion, dice  about 1/4 of a bell pepper. You may add banana peppers, chili peppers or jalapeno peppers to make the sauce spicy hot. You decide how much.

You will need at least one pound of meat: ground steak, ground beef, ground turkey or ground chicken. Beef is delicious but some people don’t easily digest red meat. If you are unsure what your dad can handle, go for the ground turkey because it agrees with everybody. If Dad is a real meat eater, ground steak or ground chuck will make him very happy. See my Quick Spaghetti post but this is a better recipe.

Brown your meat. You can cook the beef alone, it has its own oil or grease. Salt and pepper your meat and brown it. DRAIN the grease off  the red meat before you continue. If you are using another ground meat such as turkey or chicken, you will need an oil. I use sunflower oil or olive oil.

Refer to Quick Spaghetti for tonight. Cook your non red meat with seasonings such as Italian seasoning, oregano or basil.

Puree your fresh tomatoes, about 3 large tomatoes, until you have 2 cups of fresh tomato sauce. You can add fresh basil, fresh dill, any fesh herbs on hand to the tomatoes and puree. Add your diced celery, diced bell peppers and diced onions and any other item you prepared, such as peppers to your puree tomatoes. Pour your tomato sauce and diced vegetables into a pot, add salt and pepper to your taste, add 2 cloves of garlic if you like garlic and add you cooked beef. Simmer for at least one hour and stir often. If you don’t have time to babysit your pot and stir often, pour it all into a dutch oven or heavy steel pot, put the pot in a 325 degree oven and let cook for at least an hour. This way nothing will settle to the bottom and burn. When the veggies are tender it is done.

If you are using meat that is not beef, add your diced vegetables, 1 tablespoon good quality olive oil, 2 tablespoons Italian Seasoning, bring to a boil then simmer for at least one hour. Constantly stir it or cook it in the oven at 325 degree for at least an hour, until the peppers are soft and tender. Allow the meat and sauce mixture to cool, then pour it into a good, heavy pot or Dutch oven and refrigerate. The next day reheat your sauce by placing the pot in an oven at 300 to 325 degrees for 30 minutes or however long it takes for it to heat thru. Check on it from time to time and occasionally stir it.

I recommend fettucine pasta instead of spaghetti. Cook the fettucine according to the directions on the package. Serve the pasta hot, serve the sauce hot and allow guests to add as much or as little of the sauce as they desire.

This is not a last-minute quick meal. Cook it today and eat it tomorrow; the seasoning goes all through and it is really good. If you drink red wine, you can pour your red wine into the cooked and reheated sauce just before you serve it. Serve with Texas Toast or garlic bread. Double your recipe and have more than enough for the unexpected guests that will stop by to see Dad. For desert you can make the Better than sex cake, but you might want to change the name, or don’t tell him the cake’s name, just serve it.

Happy Father’s Day!