A Lotta Meat and Mushroom Sauce

We love pasta in this house, and we eat a lot of it.  I try to find new ways of making pasta to keep it interesting.  It's hard to cook other meals when there is a vegan in the house, but pasta is always a good choice.  All I do is scoop out enough sauce for the vegan and add what I want to the rest of the sauce.   He will always eat pasta, but it has to have vegan sauce. I had a package of mushrooms to use, they were hanging out in the fridge, and some ground meat too.  I never make meat sauce, we almost always have meatballs/sausage in our sauce, so I switched it up a little bit and made this meat and mushroom sauce and it was delightful.  Recipe below.

I started my sauce first and got that cooking up on the stove.  Then I browned my meat, drain the fat off because you don't need that! Transfer to a bowl and set it aside.

 Saute those 'shrooms in some olive oil until they are nice and brown.

 Back into the pan and toss them together.

 Now this is some hearty meat sauce!  I take out a few ladles of just sauce for the vegan and added some of  the mushrooms, he loved it.

 Top your favorite pasta with this awesome meat sauce and grated Parmigiano - Reggiano cheese, MANGIA!

Homemade Meat and Mushroom Sauce

Ingredients

2 tablespoons of olive oil

6 garlic cloves, minced

2 - 28 oz cans of crushed tomatoes

1 tablespoon of Italian seasoning

2 teaspoons of oregano

1/4 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped

8 basil leaves sliced

2 teaspoons of onion powder

1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes, more if you like heat

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon of black pepper

2 teaspoons of sugar

1 lb. ground meat

1 teaspoon of olive oil

1 - 8 oz. package of sliced portobello mushrooms

1 - 1lb. box of your favorite pasta

Directions

In a large saucepan over medium high heat, heat the olive oil then add the garlic.  Cook for 30 seconds, stirring so the garlic does not burn. Reduce heat to medium and add the tomatoes, Italian seasoning, oregano, parsley, basil, onion powder, red pepper, salt, pepper and sugar. Continue to cook stirring occasionally.

While the sauce is cooking, add the ground meat to a frying pan and cook until completely brown.  Drain the fat off, I use a colander, it makes it easier.  Transfer the meat to a bowl.  Add the one teaspoon of olive to the same pan and cook the mushrooms until they are golden brown.  If you have a vegan in the house, ladle out some of the sauce and toss with some of the mushrooms before combining with the meat. Toss the meat back into the frying pan and combine with the mushrooms.  Add all the meat and mushrooms to the sauce Cook the meat and sauce together for one hour.  In the last half hour of cooking, start a pot of salted water to cook your favorite pasta.