Pasta with beef/vegetable sauce
What do you need:
Ingredients:
- pasta (I prefer Italian pasta) - 1 pound package
- very lean ground beef - 1 pound
- mushrooms, I prefer cremini - 1/3 to 1/2 pound
- red bell pepper - 1 large
- frozen green peas - 1/4 pound
- 1 large and a small can or three small cans of diced or petite dices tomatoes
- tomato paste - 1 small can
- oil - I prefer coconut oil as it is very healthy and can be used at high heat
- garlic - red pepper flakes - ground black pepper - Italian herb mix (or fresh Oregano, Thyme, Rosemary, or whatever you have available in your herb garden) - salt (even if you do not have to limit your salt intake as you have heart problems, please try to NOT overdo it, help your heart).
Preparation:
- Peel the garlic and cut it in half and take the green inner part out if the garlic has it, it tastes bitter. Either use a garlic press or cut it with the knife into small pieces.
- Clean and cut the bell pepper.
- Clean and cut the mushrooms into slices
Cooking:
- As it will take about as long to cook the pasta as to prepare the sauce, the first thing to do is to fill the pasta pot with water and start cooking it on high heat. Wait with the salt until the water boils, if you use stainless steel pots, otherwise you stain the floor of the pot with the salt.
- Use a large sauce pan and preheat it with oil. Then add the ground beef and the garlic. To heat the lean ground beef in a pan, you have to use oil.
- Add the sliced mushrooms and the red pepper flakes. Be careful if the red pepper flakes are really hot. I like to use the ones I bought at Costco or Sam's Club, they are mild and they are easier to use, one flake more is not ruining the food. Also add the salt and the ground black pepper.
- Add the cut bell pepper. Keep on stirring from time to time.
- When the meat and the mushrooms look nearly done, add the diced tomatoes and the herbs and stir the pot on a regular basis.
- Add the frozen peas.
- The water in the pasta pot should be about ready now, check for that from time to time. When the water is boiling, add the salt and the pasta. Depending on the kind of pasta, it should be ready in about 6 to 12 minutes.
- Taste the pasta sauce (add spices as per your taste) and add the tomato paste and distribute it about evenly. If it ever becomes hotter than you like, add some more diced tomatoes to dilute the peppers.
- If you do not like any of the ingredients, or you do not have one, substitute it with something similar. I do not eat any onions, for example, therefore I use garlic instead (but please, do not substitute it with the same amount, 1/2 pound of garlic could be too much in a dish).
I use very lean ground beef for my cooking, preferably from grass-fed steers. But if you do not have that, please use really lean ground beef. I like to use the 90% lean ground beef for the sauce.
A great website for information about grass-fed animals is Eat Wild.
© 2010-2020 by Christian Bellingrath. All rights reserved.