Homebrew Underground

This simple spaghetti recipe is quick and easy and can be prepared in about 30 minutes. By using prepared spaghetti sauce and ground beef, you can make this delicious meat sauce fairly easily. The spaghetti sauce is tomato and basil marinara with mushrooms and meat. All you do is simmer the sauce with added mushrooms, cook the spaghetti and the meat, and then then serve.

For the spaghetti sauce, I chose a tomato and basil variety. I am adding my own mushrooms, so I chose a variety without mushrooms. Spaghetti sauce comes in 24, 25 and 26 oz sizes. Any of these sizes should do fine.

Shown below is a shot of the ingredients: spaghetti sauce, mushrooms, ground beef and spaghetti. Not shown is the seasoning and Bay leaves.

Begin by simmering the sauce. Add the sauce, mushrooms and Bay leaves to a large saucepan and simmer over a medium heat for 20 minutes.

Next, chop the garlic. It is a good idea to begin heating the water for the spaghetti at this time.

Saute the garlic in a frying pan over a medium heat.

When the garlic is softened and is a light tan color, add the ground beef to the frying pan.

Season the meat with salt and Basil, then cook it thoroughly, stirring briskly while breaking it up.

Add a little salt to the water for the spaghetti, then when it begins to boil, add the spaghetti. Boil for 9 minutes.

Below is a shot of the stove with everything cooking.

After the meat is cooked, set the frying pan on an incline to allow all the fat to separate and collect at the bottom. Remove it with a spoon and discard all the fat. We want a low fat, healthy meat sauce.

Add the cooked meat to the sauce after it has simmered for 20 minutes.

Stir the cooked meat into the sauce.

After the spaghetti has boiled for 9 minutes, drain it into a colander.

Serve immediately. Remove any Bay leaves when serviing the meat sauce.

This pizza recipe is a healthy pizza. Pizza can be healthy. This recipe uses organic pizza crust and organic Mozzarella cheese plus tomato paste with olive oil. Tomato paste is rich in the antioxidant, lycopene, which has been shown to have health benefits. Lycopene is also fat soluable. So by adding a little olive oil to the tomato paste helps increase the body’s absorption of lycopene.

You should be able to find all of the ingredients at local supermarkets and health food stores. When buying the tomato paste, be sure to read the label. Choose a brand that does not use any artificial ingredients, additives or preservatives. The brand I chose for this example was a cheap store brand sold at Von’s supermarket. I checked the labels of 2 other major brands at the time and they had additives like citric acid and HFCS (high fructose corn syrup). It is remarkable that this simple brand of tomato paste was a better choice.

Shown below is a shot of all the ingredients. Starting in the lower left corner and going clockwise: Sweet Italian Sausage, Organic Mozzarella cheese, sliced mushrooms, olive oil, tomato paste, Basil, onion and Organic Pizza crust.

Start by grilling the sausage. Remember to cook it thoroughly because it is pork. I am using an outdoor grill but you can also broil it in the oven on a broiler.

Chop the onion .

Add the chopped onion and the mushrooms to a frying pan. Season with salt and Basil (or other seasoning if you prefer), then saute over a medium flame until cooked.

Shown below is a shot of the sauted vegetables. Set aside for the moment.

By now, the sausage should be done..

Now is a good time to preheat the oven to 400° F. Shown below is a shot of the organic pizza crust.

Open the can of tomato paste and sread it onto the pizza crust with a rubber spatula. At this time add 1 1/2 tbsp of olive oil while spreading. Mix it and spread it at the same time. Work in a spiral motion from the center out.

Spread the tomato paste and olive oil mixture evenly over the crust.

Shown below is a shot of the pizza crust with the tomato paste and olive oil mixture spread over the pizza crust. It is now ready to add the toppings.

Next, add the shredded organic Mozzarella cheese.

The first topping is the sauted vegetables.

Distribute the cooked vegetables evenly over the surface.

The next topping is the cooked sausage. Dice the sausage by cutting each sausage into 3/8 inch slices, then quartering each slice.

Shown below is a shot of the pizza ready to cook. By now the oven is probably ready. Place it in the oven and bake for 10 – 15 minutes.

Shown below is a shot of the finished pizza. It’s delicious and healthy. Cut into six slices and serve hot.