Spaghetti for Christmas... Sort of

We decided to make up a big batch of our spaghetti sauce on Christmas day.  The idea was to have a nice, filling dinner and plenty of leftovers to eat for lunches. 

I spent the bulk of the afternoon making the sauce, but late in the afternoon, Juli realized we didn't have any spaghetti!  When making the list for the previous day's shopping list, we'd made sure to list all of the sauce ingredients we didn't have on stock, but somehow we forgot to add spaghetti.

Thankfully, we did have some macaroni on hand, so we had our spaghetti sauce with macaroni.   This made for a good meal, though perhaps not quite as nice as if we'd had the spaghetti.  We served it up with garlic bread and a side Caesar salad.

All in all, this made for a good first Xmas dinner in our new home.

Pasta with Mushroom Marinara Sauce

I'm posting a lot later than usual due to us being really busy lately, but tonight's post is about a new dish I tossed together tonight.  It's a completely original recipe, one that came together in my mind this morning as I thought about what I was going to make tonight.

In designing this recipe, I was going for a greater depth of flavor than one usually gets from a simple red sauce.   Toward that purpose, I used flavorful porcini mushrooms in addition to the common button mushroom, I cooked down a bit of red wine, and I added three somewhat unusual ingredients, namely anchovy fillets, a bit of Worcestershire sauce and a bit of Parmesan rind.  Parmesan rind is more typically used in soups, but it blended nicely into this sauce, providing a nice bit of richness. 

I'm really pleased with the results.  With all the mushrooms and the rich, thickened sauce, this was nicely filling without meat.  I used campanelle, so the pasta shapes would hold the bits of mushroom nicely, but pretty much any pasta, including spaghetti, would be fine for this dish.  Served up with a salad, this made for a really nice, and pretty fast, dinner.

Pasta with Mushroom Marinara Sauce

yield = 6 servings

3            tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1            medium onion, minced
12          ounces button mushrooms, sliced
1            ounce dried porcini mushrooms, soaked and chopped
2            teaspoons minced garlic
1/2         teaspoon dried basil
1/2         teaspoon dried oregano
1/2         teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
1/4         teaspoon table salt + 1 teaspoon with pasta
1/4         teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2         cup Merlot (or other red wine)
1            can (28 ounces) crushed tomatoes
1            can (28 ounces) whole tomatoes
1            ounce anchovy fillets
1            ounce Parmesan cheese rind, chopped.
1            tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1            pound campanelle or other pasta
              freshly-grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Heat olive oil to shimmering in a large skillet.  Add onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened.  Add the button and porcini mushrooms and cook, stirring often, until the mushrooms have given off their moisture and said moisture has cooked off.  Add garlic, basil, oregano, pepper, crushed red pepper flakes and 1/4 teaspoon salt and cook until the garlic is fragrant (about 45 seconds).   Add Merlot and cook until the wine has cooked down about halfway.   Add whole and crushed tomatoes, anchovy fillets, Parmesan rind and Worcestershire sauce.  Break up the tomatoes with the side of a wooden spoon and stir to mix.  Simmer until nicely thickened, about 1/2 hour.

Meanwhile, add the remaining salt to a large pot with 4 quarts of water.  Bring to a boil, add pasta and cook per package directions (10-11 minutes for al dente, in the case of campanelle).  Drain pasta, top portions of pasta with sauce, sprinkle with grated cheese and serve.

Revisiting Some Old Favorites

As I've said before, part of the joy of cooking so many new things and making up so many new recipes is finding more things you'll want to make over and over.  Over the past couple weeks, we've revisited several recipes we've previously featured.

We've written a lot about Graziano Bros. Italian Grocery in the past.   You can buy a lot of great things there... fresh-made Italian sausage, excellent cheeses, salami and pepperoni, imported pastas and meats and homemade meatballs and ravioli.   We picked up some cheese ravioli and cooked it up along with a batch of our Chunky Marinara Sauce.  The ravioli was great - tender pasta, a flavorful mix of cheeses - and the Marinara went great with it.

It's been awhile since I've tried out any new cookie recipes, but I have been falling back on some old favorites, including my Chewy Lime Sugar Cookies and the Incredible Cookies I've written about before.  Both turned out great, and between them, our cookie jars are now well-stocked.

For Valentine's Day, Juli requested that I cook up another batch of Chili Shrimp with Broccoli.  It wasn't that long ago I first made that, but she loved it and was more than ready for another batch.  It turned out just as good this time as it did the last one. 

For dessert, I made up a batch of the Easy Chocolate Pudding from the most recent issue of Cook's Country.  Last time I made this recipe, I did the almond version, but this time I went with the basic recipe.   It produced a creamy pudding with incredibly rich chocolate flavor - almost too rich, strange as that sounds.

Talking about things we've made multiple times has me wondering... have any readers tried out any of our recipes and liked them enough to have made them more than once?  If so, we'd be glad to hear from you.

Spaghetti with Homemade Meatballs + Crusty French Bread

This weekend, I made up another batch of my Chunky Marinara Sauce in order to make Spaghetti with Meatballs.  But while the sauce is something I've made before, I did a couple other new things.  Specifically, rather than use our dependable favorite Graziano Bros. meatballs, I made my own.   I also took my first stab at making bread and cooked up a couple French loaves.

Having had some difficulty with lamb meatballs in the recent past, I consulted some meatball recipes before putting together one of my own.   I ended up closely styling mine after an old Cook's Illustrated recipe, but I changed a few things to better reflect Juli's and my preferences.   Most notably, I changed around the ratio of beef to Italian sausage, going from the 5:1 ratio CI suggested to a 2:1 ratio.  I made this change because I wanted a bit more of the sausage flavor. 

The meatballs turned out great.... nice texture, flavorful and a good complement to the sauce.   I'm not going to claim my meatballs are better than the ones we purchase at Graziano Bros. Grocery - at least not yet - but I'm quite pleased with them.   We'll keep some of the Graziano meatballs around for when we need meatballs in a hurry and with a minimum of hassle, but I'm confident that I'll be making my own meatballs most of the time from now on. 

Jeffrey's Italian Meatballs

yield = 24 meatballs

2           tablespoons olive oil
2           medium yellow onions, chopped fine
4           teaspoons minced garlic
4           teaspoons dried oregano, crushed
1/2        teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
4           slices white bread, torn into 1-inch pieces
2/3        cup milk
1           cup freshly-grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1/3        cup chopped fresh parsley
2           large eggs
1           teaspoon salt
1/2        teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
2           pounds 85% lean ground beef
1           pound fresh, loose sweet Italian sausage

Heat olive oil until shimmering in a large skillet over medium-high heat.   Add onions and cook until golden-brown, about 8 minutes, stirring frequently.  Stir in garlic, oregano and red pepper flakes and cook 30 seconds, then transfer onion mixture to a large bowl to cool.

Add bread pieces to a medium bowl.  Pour in milk and allow the bread to soak for 5 minutes, then use hands to squeeze soaked bread into rough paste.  Add bread-milk paste to the large bowl with the cooled onion mixture.

Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position.    Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Set a wire rack within a rimmed baking sheet and spray the rack and sheet with nonstick cooking spray. 

Add grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, parsley, eggs, salt and pepper to the onion/bread mixture.  Stir together to mix these ingredients, then add ground beef and sausage to the mixture.  Using hands, mix all the ingredients thoroughly, then shape mixture into approximately 24 meatballs, each somewhat larger than a golf ball.  Arrange meatballs evenly but without touching on the wire rack and bake until well-browned, 20-25 minutes. 

After baking up the meatballs, I mixed them in with the marinara sauce and served the meatballs and sauce over spaghetti with a sprinkle of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.   Our meal was rounded out with a Caesar salad and slices of Crusty French Bread.  I made the bread using a recipe that came with our Cuisinart Stand Mixer.  Unfortunately, my first try at making bread didn't work out quite as well as did my first tries at cake or pie.   It wasn't bad, mind you, just not as good as I'd have preferred. 

The Crusty French Bread had a great crust and good flavor, and while Juli thought it was okay, I didn't really like the interior texture.   The bread was too dense for my tastes.   I will probably try out a different recipe next time I decide to make French bread, but I suppose this recipe might be a good starting point if I decide to experiment with making my own recipe some day.  Still, it didn't keep us from enjoying this meal, and it didn't in any way dampen my happiness with how the meatballs had turned out.

Snowed In

There are times when living in a small town a fair ways from where one works is not very convenient, and the last two days has been one of those times.   When the weather is bad, a snowstorm that means what might be simply a slow drive home for someone in the city can be treacherous for someone who lives nearly an hour from the city and who has to rely on county roads which, often as not, don't get plowed very well.

This winter hasn't been nearly as bad as the last one, but winter weather can still be a bit of a pain.  Juli and I left work early yesterday in order to get  home before the roads got dreadfully bad.  We weren't sure what things would be like today, but when we woke up, we found that while the roads were merely listed as 100% snow and ice covered, there was also a towing ban in effect, and the nearby school districts had all called off classes for the day.  We also found that we were completely snowed in.   In addition to several inches (I'm guessing about seven) on the ground, it was still snowing, and the street crews had plowed a few feet of snow and slush - which had frozen  to ice - at each end of our driveway.  

We weighed whether or not to struggle through that and brave the drive into work, as the Highway Patrol had not downgraded the road conditions to "travel not recommended,", but the TV news said that while the snow was supposed to taper off by midday or so, the wind was supposed to pick up, likely causing blowing and drifting snow.   There hadn't been much wind to that point, which is the main factor that had kept the weather from being as bad as it could have been, but since that looked likely to change - possibly stranding us in town or making for a very treacherous drive home, assuming we made it in without mishap - we decided to just use some of our vacation time for a snow day today.

On the positive side, that gave me a chance to do some cooking.    We hadn't done any significant amount of "getting ready to ride the storm out" shopping, but a quick check of the fridge, freezer and cupboards told me there were lots of things I might make with what we had on hand.

The first thing I did today was make a batch of Cook's Illustrated's Best Blueberry Muffins, which I've made and written about before.   Once again, they turned out flavorful, moist and just plain wonderful.  One of our neighbors came by as I was just putting them in the oven.  This gentleman makes a practice of bringing his snow blower around and clearing off people's walks, and in thanks for his being a good samaritan, we sent him home with four of the muffins, still warm from the oven, for him and his wife.

For lunch, I made up a batch of my Chunky Marinara Sauce and mixed it in with some meatballs and pasta.  I had several boxes of pasta containing just a few ounces apiece, so I cooked up three of them - campanelle, cellentani and farfalle (bells, spiral macaroni and bowtie pasta) - mixed together in the same pot.   The mix of pastas cooked up fine, with none over- or under-cooked, and the sauce turned out just as good this time as it has in the past.

When I started making the sauce, though, I realized there was a typo in the version of the recipe I originally published.  It's a somewhat obvious one - I listed 1/4 tablespoon of grated sharp cheddar cheese as an ingredient, when it should have said 1/4 cup - but in case anyone was confused, I've corrected the original, and I reprint it below as well. 

For dinner, I'm planning to make a mild lamb curry.  Right now it appears the weather will have died down sufficiently by the evening that road crews should be able to get things cleared up pretty well overnight, so we probably won't have any real problem getting in to work tomorrow morning.   That's good, but for today we mostly got to stay in, take it easy and make - and eat - some great food.   All in all, that's not a bad way to be snowed in.

Pasta with Chunky Marinara Sauce

yield = 6-8 servings

1        28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
1        15-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
5        quarts water + 1/2 cup
2        teaspoons table salt, divided
24      frozen meatballs (optional)
2        tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1        large onion, minced
2        teaspoons minced garlic
2        teaspoons dried oregano
1        6-ounce can tomato paste
1/2     cup red wine
1        teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
1        teaspoon sugar
1/8     teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
3/4     pound uncooked pasta
1/4    cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
2        tablespoons freshly-grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
          + extra for serving
2        teaspoons dried basil

Heat the crushed tomato and diced tomatoes in a large saucepan over medium heat and cook until it has thickened significantly.  Add 5 quarts water and 1 teaspoon table salt to a large pot over high heat and bring to a boil.  (If you are making the dish with meatballs, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and arrange the meatballs on a wire baking rack set over a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil.  Place in the oven and cook for approximately 1/2 hour, or until done.)

Meanwhile, add the oil to a Dutch oven over medium heat.  When the oil is shimmering, add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, until it starts to brown.  Stir in the garlic and oregano and cook for about 1 minute, then stir in the tomato paste and cook another minute.  Add red wine and water and cook for 1-2 minutes, then stir in the sugar, black pepper, salt and red pepper flakes.

By that point, the tomato mixture should have cooked down enough.  Add the thickened tomato mixture to the Dutch oven, stir thoroughly, reduce heat and cook at a low simmer.

When the water in the large pot has come to a boil, add the pasta and cook according to directions.  At the same time, add the cheddar cheese, two tablespoons Parmesan cheese and basil to the Dutch oven and stir in.  (If you are making the dish with meatballs, stir them into the sauce at this time as well.)

Drain the pasta and serve topped with the sauce (and meatballs, if desired) and with grated Parmesan cheese, or mix the cooked pasta with the sauce (and meatballs, if desired) and serve.

Pasta and Meatballs with Chunky Marinara Sauce

We had our Christmas dinner the weekend before Christmas, when Juli's son and his partner dropped by for a visit.  That dinner featured a ham, dinner rolls, and some festive sides.   By the time Christmas itself rolled around, we were pretty tired for various reasons, including dealing with winter weather, and neither of us was in the mood for a traditional Xmas feast.   Instead, I simply cooked something tasty for lunch and supper.

Lunch was pasta with marinara sauce and meatballs.  I made up a variation on my Quick Marinara Sauce recipe, mostly because we didn't have enough crushed tomato to make up a full batch of the basic recipe.  We had several cans of diced tomatoes, though, so I made up for what I didn't have in crushed tomato by adding some diced tomatoes.  The result was a chunky sauce.  It was, frankly, delicious... every bit as good as the non-chunky sauce. 

One of these days I'll have to get around to finding or making a good recipe for Italian-style meatballs, but this time around I didn't want to go to that much work, so I went with our standby:  Frozen handmade meatballs from Graziano Bros. Grocery.   Their excellence is the main reason I haven't really felt a strong need to find or come up with my own meatball recipe. 

For the pasta, I skipped the traditional spaghetti and cooked up some radiatore for something different.  We'd picked that up awhile back but hadn't gotten around to using it for anything.  It went great with the sauce and meatballs.  

Juli used a loaf of Italian bread we'd picked up the day before to make some garlic bread to go with our lunch.

Pasta with red sauce and meatballs might not be a traditional Christmas meal for most people, but it sure hit the spot for us!

Our Christmas lunch.
The garlic bread isn't pictured, as it was still in the oven.

Pasta with Chunky Marinara Sauce

yield = 6 servings

1        28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
1        15-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
5        quarts water + 1/2 cup
2        teaspoons table salt, divided
24      frozen meatballs (optional)
2        tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1        large onion, minced
2        teaspoons minced garlic
2        teaspoons dried oregano
1        6-ounce can tomato paste
1/2     cup red wine
1        teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
1        teaspoon sugar
1/8     teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
3/4     pound uncooked pasta
1/4    cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
2        tablespoons freshly-grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
          + extra for serving
2        teaspoons dried basil

Christmas morning in the kitchen.
Left:  Stock pot with water boiling for the pasta
Right front:  Dutch oven with onions
Right rear: Saucepan with crushed and diced
tomatoes simmering.

Heat the crushed tomato and diced tomatoes in a large saucepan over medium heat and cook until it has thickened significantly.  Add 5 quarts water and 1 teaspoon table salt to a large pot over high heat and bring to a boil.  (If you are making the dish with meatballs, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and arrange the meatballs on a wire baking rack set over a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil.  Place in the oven and cook for approximately 1/2 hour, or until done.)

Meanwhile, add the oil to a Dutch oven over medium heat.  When the oil is shimmering, add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, until it starts to brown.  Stir in the garlic and oregano and cook for about 1 minute, then stir in the tomato paste and cook another minute.  Add red wine and water and cook for 1-2 minutes, then stir in the sugar, black pepper, salt and red pepper flakes.

By that point, the tomato mixture should have cooked down enough.  Add the thickened tomato mixture to the Dutch oven, stir thoroughly, reduce heat and cook at a low simmer.

When the water in the large pot has come to a boil, add the pasta and cook according to directions.  At the same time, add the cheddar cheese, two tablespoons Parmesan cheese and basil to the Dutch oven and stir in.  (If you are making the dish with meatballs, stir them into the sauce at this time as well.)

Drain the pasta and serve topped with the sauce (and meatballs, if desired) and with grated Parmesan cheese.

Spaghetti and Meatballs with Quick Marinara Sauce

Recently I made up a batch of spaghetti and meatballs.  I didn't make the meatballs myself.  Instead, I used some of the meatballs made at Graziano Bros. Grocery, which we picked up during a recent shopping trip and kept in the freezer until we were ready to use them.  If you are going to do any sort of Italian cooking and live anywhere near Des Moines, Graziano Bros. is the place to shop.

I didn't make the pasta, either.  From what I've read and seen, making pasta for oneself is more trouble than it is worth, so I'm perfectly happy to buy good pasta made by someone else.  But I did make the marinara sauce, from my own recipe.  The recipe includes an important time-saving step, though at the cost of needing to wash an extra pan.

My very first step in preparing the meal was to start cooking the crushed tomatoes.  After getting that going, I started heating up the oven to 350 degrees.  Before it was heated up, I took the meatballs out of the freezer, put them atop a wire rack above a casserole dish and put them in the oven.  This way they could defrost and cook while I got everything else ready.   After frying up the onions and garlic, I started boiling water for the pasta, then went back to finishing up the marinara.  By having already cooked down the crushed tomatoes during the same time I was making the rest of the sauce, I saved a bunch of time from what it would have taken to add the tomatoes to the Dutch oven directly from the can and then have the sauce cook down and thicken.  This way, all I had to do was mix the thickened crushed tomatoes with the mixture in the Dutch oven, then mix in the cheeses and fresh basil. 

Next I added the meatballs - nicely cooked by this time - to the sauce and stirred them around to coat them.  By then the water was boiling, so I tossed the spaghetti into the pot with the boiling water, stirred it to keep it from sticking together, then got the marinara and meatballs ready to serve while the pasta cooked.   A few minutes later the pasta was drained and everything was ready to serve.  All that remained was to grate some Parmesan atop the served-up pasta, then it was time to eat.  

The sauce was richly flavorful and had a wonderful, thick texture that stuck well to the spaghetti and which wasn't the least bit watery.  Juli and I both think it compares well to the best red sauces we've had in better Italian restaurants, and surpasses most of them.  But, as always, I invite you to try it out for yourself.  If you do, let us know what you think.

Quick Marinara Sauce

yield = 5-6 servings

36     ounces crushed tomatoes (one large 28-oz can plus another cup)

2       tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1       large onion, minced

1       teaspoon minced garlic

1       6 ounce can of tomato paste

2       teaspoons dried oregano

1/2    cup red wine (I used a Merlot)

1/4    cup water

1       teaspoon sugar

1       teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper

1       teaspoon salt

1/8    teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

1/4    cup grated sharp cheddar cheese

1       tablespoon freshly-grated Parmesan cheese

2       tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Heat crushed tomato in a large saucepan over medium heat and cook it until it has thickened significantly.

Meanwhile, add the oil to a Dutch oven and heat at medium-high.  Add the onion and cook it, stirring frequently, until golden.  Stir in the garlic and cook for about 1 minute, then stir in the tomato paste and oregano and cook until fragrant (about 1 minute).   Reduce heat to medium, stir in the red wine and water and cook for 1-2 minutes, then stir in the sugar, black pepper, salt and red pepper flakes.   

By that point, the crushed tomato should have cooked down.  Add the thickened crushed tomatoes to the Dutch oven, stir thoroughly and cook for about 2 minutes to let the flavors blend.  Stir in the cheddar and Parmesan cheeses and the basil and cook for 2-3 minutes.  

If you are serving the sauce alone over pasta, ravioli, etc., it is ready to serve.  If you are serving it with meatballs, stir in the already-cooked meatballs, cook for another 1-2 minutes and serve.

Something New, Times Two

For last night's dinner I prepared cheese ravioli with Tomato Shrimp Sauce and Roasted Cauliflower with Curry-Yogurt Sauce, plus garlic bread.   This was my first time preparing both the Tomato Shrimp Sauce and the Roasted Cauliflower, though I've made a lot of recipes similar to the Tomato Shrimp Sauce. 

The shrimp sauce is in the pale yellow serving bowl at the top left of the picture, next to the garlic bread.  The cauliflower is at the bottom right.

The cauliflower recipe was originally printed in an issue of Cook's Illustrated; I got it from America's Test Kitchen's Best-Ever Recipes, which I reviewed here:  http://jeffreyandjulicook.blogspot.com/2010/09/best-ever-recipes-lives-up-to-its-title.html .

The Tomato Shrimp Sauce recipe was inspired by one I found in an old issue of Taste of Home magazine. Truth to tell, I'm not a big fan of Taste of Home.  Too many of the recipes are based on pre-prepared convenience foods such as canned soup.  While there's nothing at all wrong with a busy person cutting corners like that in order to get a meal on the table with a minimum of time and fuss, in my cooking I generally prioritize quality over speed (though I do prize recipes that balance those two factors to good result).  In any case, there are some really solid recipes in that magazine too, and I've adapted more than a few of them to my own tastes - sometimes even retaining some of the pre-packaged ingredients.  You just have to weed through a lot of bland, ho-hum recipes to find the gems.  For that reason, we don't usually buy it, but we're glad to pick up a pile of back issues when we find them at garage sales.

Anyhow, here's my recipe.

Tomato Shrimp Sauce

yield = 4 servings

1     can (14.5 oz) Italian-style stewed tomatoes
1     small to medium onion, chopped fine
2     tablespoons butter
2     teaspoons minced garlic
2     tablespoons all-purpose flour
1     tablespoon brown sugar
1     bay leaf
1/2  teaspoon dried basil
1/2  teaspoon salt
1/4  teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
1/8  teaspoon ground cloves
1/3  cup water
1/2  pound pasta or 1 pound fresh or frozen cheese ravioli
1/2  pound medium or large shrimp, peeled and deveined
2     teaspoons fresh basil, chopped
1/4  cup grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Puree the tomatoes in a food processor; set aside.  Start water boiling for pasta or ravioli.

Heat butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add onion and garlic; sautee until onion is tender.  Stir in flour until blended; stir and cook for about 2 minutes.

Add pureed tomatoes, stir, and cook for 1 minute.  Add brown sugar, bay leaf, basil, salt, pepper, ground cloves and water,  Stir, bring to a boil.  Reduce  heat and simmer, uncovered, for approximately 5 minutes or until well-thickened.  Meanwhile, cook pasta or ravioli according to package directions.

Remove and discard bay leaf.  Add shrimp and stir to cook until the shrimp is done.   Drain pasta.  Spoon shrimp and tomato sauce atop cooked pasta or ravioli and top with chopped fresh basil (and grated Parmesan cheese, if desired).

We cooked some frozen ravioli from the grocery store.  The garlic bread was also store-bought; we just warmed it up in the oven.

Everything turned out quite tasty.  The cauliflower was especially good.  As promised in the recipe, roasting it made it a lot more flavorful than usual for cauliflower, and the sauce - an Indian-inspired one - enhanced that flavor very nicely.  The shrimp sauce was also quite good.  We skipped the grated Parmesan cheese because the ravioli were stuffed with plenty of cheese.

Spaghetti Time!

In Juli's post today, she mentioned the spaghetti sauce I made for lunch.  This is a recipe she and I developed several years ago.  We started with an old family recipe of hers.  Overall, the old one was okay, but not as flavorful as either of us wanted.  It did have one unusual feature we liked, though:  the inclusion of cheddar cheese within the sauce, which lends a unique taste to the sauce and also thickens it.   A few years ago, after a fair bit of tinkering, we arrived at the version below.  We rather like it.  

Today we had it over spaghetti squash, along with a Caesar salad and garlic bread.  The squash wasn't quite as spaghetti-like as we'd have preferred, but it was quite tasty. 

Jeffrey and Juli's Spaghetti Sauce

1     tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2     onions, chopped fine
8     oz mushrooms, sliced thin
1     tablespoon minced garlic
1/2  pound Italian sausage
1 1/2 pounds lean (90% or better) ground beef
1     large (24 oz.) can diced tomatoes
2     12 oz cans tomato paste
2     teaspoons dried oregano
11/2 teaspoon dried basil
1 1/2 teaspoons dried rosemary, ground or crushed
1     teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1     teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
3/4  teaspoon salt
2     bay leaves
2     cups sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven, then saute the onions and garlic.  After a couple minutes, add the mushrooms.  Cook, stirring frequently, until the onions have softened and started to brown. 

Meanwhile, heat a large skillet, then add the Italian sausage and ground beef, crumbling it into small (about 1 inch) chunks.  Brown the meat, breaking it into smaller chunks with the side of a spoon. 

Add the tomato paste to the Dutch oven with the onions and mushrooms and stir for a minute or so, then add the canned tomatoes.  Stir and cook for about two minutes, then add the spices and seasonings, stir and cook for a couple more minutes.  Drain the meat and add to the Dutch oven with the sauce.  Fill one of the tomato paste cans with water and add to the sauce, stirring it in.  Add 1-2 more cans of water.  Bring the sauce to a light boil, then reduce heat to a low simmer. 

Simmer uncovered for about 20 minutes, then covered for at least an hour (about two hours is better, time allowing), stirring occasionally.  Add the cheddar cheese, stir it in and simmer until the cheese is melted and incorporated into the sauce, stirring often. 

Serve over spaghetti or spaghetti squash.  Top with fresh, chopped basil and/or grated Parmesan cheese if desired.

This sauce freezes up excellently, and stays good for about four months in the freezer.