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.

Steak Au Poivre

Another one adapted from NYT Cookbook.  This is a great recipe for second tier cuts of steak, like sirloin.

Ingredients

  • Steaks
  • Half a lemon
  • 2 tablespoons of butter
  • Whole peppercorns
  • Worcestershire Sauce
  • Tabasco
  • Brown liquor (preferably high proof)
  1. Put a few peppercorns on each side of each steak and tenderize.
  2. Put a pinch of salt in the bottom of a cast iron skillet and heat the skillet until the salt starts to brown.
  3. Add the steaks, and cook until the steaks have mostly reached your desired temperature.
  4. Remove the steaks.
  5. Turn the heat off of the skill and scrap the bottom of the skillet to separate the browned pieces of steak from the bottom of the skillet.
  6. When the skillet is cool enough to not burn the butter, add it.
  7. When the butter has melted, add the lemon, Tabasco and Worcester sauce.  Briefly let the sauce reduce.
  8. Add the steaks back into the skillet.
  9. Pour the brown liquor over the steaks.
  10. Light it on fire.