Beef Marinara

I love simple, tomato-based spaghetti recipes. Nearly everybody likes them, they’re easy to make delicious, you can make them in big quantities for little money, and they taste even better as leftovers. After years of winging it, I’ve found myself coming back again and again to an adaptation of this Red Wine and Rosemary Marinara from Cooking Light.

Ingredients (my way):

• Olive oil
• One medium onion, chopped
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• 3/4lb lean ground beef
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 cup red wine, preferably dry
• 1 tbsp honey
• 2 tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper (or more, to heat taste)
• 1 28oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1 6oz can no-salt-added tomato paste

Directions:
Stir-fry the onion in olive oil until almost clear. Add garlic, stir fry about 45 seconds or until fragrant, then add ground beef. Stir fry until beef is cooked through, then add green pepper and stir fry until pepper is just beginning to soften (it’ll cook the rest of the way as the sauce simmers).

Add the rest of the ingredients, wine through tomato paste. Take it easy on the honey- it adds a nice golden sweetness, but it can be really overpowering. 1tbsp is actually half the amount called for in the original recipe and that’s plenty.

Let it simmer at least 20 minutes, or until it thickens. I recommend letting it simmer for a minimum of an hour to let the flavors really mingle. Serve it over spaghetti or linguine, with red wine, salad and/or garlic bread on the side.