Best Meat Sauce (cheap) w/ Beer

This is how I make my pasta meat sauce, which i get many compliments on. I'm in college, so i make it cheap, and when I'm in a pinch i can make it extra cheap without sacrificing flavor. I'm going to show you how i make it when i have a full refrigerator, i.e. the beginning of the month. This means that it will be the way that i like it (HOT & SPICY), but i will tell you what to do if its your end of the month, if you don't like it hot, or you just don't want to spend a lot of money on a good and hearty meal.

this is a deviation of my mothers spaghetti sauce, except i think that this is better, cheaper, easier, and faster (don't tell my mom that though)

Step 1: Ingredients

I recommend that you buy as much of these ingredients from Costco or someplace similar.
This will cut the cost and you'll have stuff left over to make it again. I got almost everything from Costco.

Ingredients:

- 2 large yellow onions
- 1 pack of ground meat
- 4 large Italian style sausages
- 1 jar of pasta sauce
- 2 cans of diced tomatoes
- a lot of garlic
- oil (i use olive oil but i don't think it matters much)

^{These are the mandatory ingredients}
but i like to add:

- 2-3 large jalapenos peppers (pickled or fresh)
- 1/2-1 can of beer (i like to use Budweiser, but i used nicer beer this time)
- 2-3 bay leaves
- salt, pepper, paprika, Tabasco, anything else you like or have

I used ground turkey because it is cheaper then beef. if you have ground beef, pork, etc. use it instead. its a lot better then turkey. unless you are a health nut.

The sausage that i used is Italian. it comes in huge packages at Costco.

Caution... i used a very large pan, which a lot of people might not have and i filled it to the brim, so make sure you have something big to cook this in.

I use a jar of sauce because its a lot faster. i started making this sauce as a way to make this plain jar of sauce better. My mother's sauce is from scratch, but i think this is a lot easier, and if you buy the 3 packs from Costco, i think its really cheap. Its not any good by itself, unless you are in a big hurry to make dinner.

Comments

[haventmadeabombyet]

I've made this twice so far, and it's always well received. Thanks!

BTW, I accidentally replaced one of the cans of diced tomatoes with "Diced tomatoes and green chilies." It worked out OK. Something you might want to try if you're ever pressed for time and don't want to bother chopping jalapenos peppers.

[grimelda]

ive never heard of beer in pasta sauce before, but ill try!

have you ever tried adding a tin of anchovies to this recipe? i can really recommend it!!

[Yerboogieman]

Blue moon is a pretty good beer. Nice instructable.

[TnT101]

I follow similar recipe for sauce as well for a meat chili (except for the sausage) And the only other thing I do different is brown the meat alone first, place it in a screen strainer and let the fat drip off it before I add all the other good stuff. And for the people who dont like "Pepper-Hot" i use "Colemans Mustard" (The powdered kind sold in the yellow tin) That lights the nasal passages but dissipates to nothing in a minute or two, unlike the Hot Peppers which heat stays in your mouth throughout the meal.

[beefaroni]

good suggestion. this instructable is one of the ways that i make this sauce, and it is the most basic way of making it that i normally do. this is also the way that i make it when i want sauce but don't have a lot of time. i actually just made this sauce this afternoon for dinner, and my girlfriend was going to be eating it with me, so i added the jalapenos with the meat so that the heat would be cooked out of them longer. i then made up for the loss of flavor by adding a few large splashes of worcestershire sauce. it was very good if i don't say so myself. -- i to drain the oil and fat, i should buy a screen strainer. the screen strainer sounds like a good idea. i just tip the pan and drain as much as i can, but i always loose some of the meat / onions to the sink doing it this way.

[hackerlife]

I love how you say things like: "..i like to leave a few of them a little larger then the rest of them for a treat. i like sausage." and: "...they didn't taste good in this and i ended up eating most of them before it was done just to get rid of them" Spoken like a true man and college student!! Also, awesome instructable, I wish I actually had the willpower to cook!

[beefaroni]

thanks! i was trying to add my personality to it, and write the recipe the way that i would want to read it.

[vividMonochrome]

Great Recipe! My hubby and I just quit our jobs and are going to school full time so cheap eats are a necessity. He is a meatasaurous so this recipe rocks on the protein packing front. Look out for garlic on sale at places like Shoppers, Safeway, ect. I have gotten 5 packs of fresh garlic heads for $1 or less and it really is a fresher flavor than garlic powder. Also I have not checked Costco, but Bj's (like Costco) has HUGE packs (10+) of garlic heads super cheap. (less than $5) Thanks for the instructable!

[beefaroni]

thanks for the advise. i'll look for deals on garlic when i run out.

[jianqiang]

*drool* I'm so hungry but I don't want to get out of bed!