Introduction: Roasted Tomato Sauce With Venison and Wild Boar Meat

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About: I helped start Instructables, previously worked in biotech and academic research labs, and have a degree in biology from MIT. Currently head of Product helping young startups at Alchemist Accelerator, previous…

This is an excellent, low-effort way to use super-lean ground meat from wild boar or venison.  The roasted tomatoes add enough moisture for a great sauce, but have already been cooked down to provide strong tomato flavor, so you don't have long to wait. 

It was too hot to boil a pot of water for pasta yesterday, so I just let the sauce reduce a bit more over low heat and ate it as the thick chili you see here.  Doubly good, though remarkably less photogenic.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon butter or olive oil
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
2 cups roasted tomatoes (freshly cooked or frozen)
1 pound ground meat (any lean meat will do, but game is excellent)
pinch of salt
teaspoon of Worchestershire sauce
tablespoon of sherry vinegar (cider, red wine, or balsamic vinegar will also do nicely)

Directions:
- Saute onion in oil with salt until soft.
- Add roasted tomatoes, and stir (or, if frozen, until thawed and separated)
- Add ground meat, and stir to combine
- Simmer on low heat until meat is thoroughly cooked
- Add Worchestershire sauce and sherry
- Simmer briefly to combine flavors
- Taste and adjust seasonings
- Serve atop your favorite pasta, or simmer longer and serve as a thick chili.

Notes:
- If you were using a normal farmed meat, you'd brown it with the onions before adding the tomatoes.  Game meat is so ridiculously lean (and good for you) that browning it will over-cook the proteins, making it dry and yucky.  Stewing it with the tomatoes is the way to go if you use game or another equally lean meat (say, ground turkey breast or bison) in this recipe.
- This recipe scales.  In the pictures below, I'm using 2 onions, 2 lbs of meat, and 4 cups of roasted tomatoes.
- I'd normally add garlic, but there was plenty of it in my tomatoes.  Your mileage may vary.
- All measurements are approximate!  Go for what tastes good to you.  There's very little you can do wrong here besides burn it, provided you start with good ingredients.

Added bonus:  the roasted tomatoes are delicious heirloom varieties from Wild Boar Farms.  And what do you know, Wild Boar tomatoes taste great with wild boar!