“Come over here kid, learn something. You might have to cook for 20 guys some day. Ya, see, you start out with a little bit of water. Then you fry some garlic. Throw in some tomata’s, tomata’ paste, you fry it and make sure it doesn’t stick. When it’s boiling, you shove in your sausage and meatballs, a little bit of wine, a little bit of suga’. That’s my sauce.†— Clemenza The Godfather
Here is my recipe for vegan spaghetti sauce. It is good with pig and beef as well. Make it how you wish. Before I gather my ingredients, I like to put on some music. Today I’ll be spinning Ronnie James Dio in my favorite container “Rainbow.” If you are feeling hardcore, by all means put on Wop Hour by “Raw Power.”
Active Ingredients
- 1/2 pound veggie sausage (I use Field Roast)
- 1/2 pound lean ground veggie (I use Morning Star crumbles)
- A bit of olive oil
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced (I use more, because garlic, fuck yeah!)
- A splash of red wine
- 4 (8-ounce) cans tomato sauce
- 1 (6-ounce) can Italian-style tomato paste
- 3 cups water
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
- 1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms (I use portobello mushrooms, any type will do)
Remove plastic from veggie sausage, and discard. Slice up the veggie sausage. Throw some olive oil in the Dutch oven. Cook veggie sausage and ground veggie over medium heat 6 minutes, stirring until hot. Add onion and garlic, and sauté 4 minutes. Pour the mixture into another container.
Combine sauce, wine and next 6 ingredients in Dutch oven; cook, stirring occasionally, 1 hour.
Play some more Dio, have a bit of the wine, wait an hour.
Add veggie sausage mixture and mushrooms. Cook, stirring occasionally, 1 hour and 30 minutes or until mixture thickens. The smell will waft through your dwelling and make people go, “got-dang, that smells good!”
The slow cooking is what really makes this sauce great. So, take 90 minutes to do something, checking on the sauce occasionally.
Serve over fat noodles; sprinkle with cheese (if so inclined). Serve with bread-sticks, salad and more wine. Momma-mia, that’s some good fucking sauce!
