The Big Spaghetti

This is a red sauce which the kid and I have developed over the past year or so. It's our favorite for pasta at the moment.

Ingredients:

One pound of ground beef
Some olive oil
Some Chianti
12 oz tomato paste
One onion
Two stalks of celery
Five or six cloves of garlic
Some oregano (fresh if you can get it)
Salt, pepper

(1) Put a little olive oil in the pan. Start the meat browning over a medium heat in this oil. Stir now and then, breaking up clumps.

(2) Dice the onion, slice the celery, smash and dice the garlic. Dump it all in a bowl as you work. Once the meat is browned, drain out most of the fat. Then mix in the chopped onion/celery/garlic. Add a little more olive oil, stirring well.

(3) Add the tomato paste. Fill the can the tomato paste came in halfway full with hot water, and stir that in too. Add some Chianti -- maybe a quarter cup? We don't actually measure. Stir some more.

(4) Add the oregano, a bit of salt, some pepper. Stir some more. Set to simmer for about half an hour. Taste it now and then -- you might need more Chianti or more salt or more pepper. If so, add those in.

(5) While the sauce is simmering, cook your pasta. Whichever kind you like best is fine!

(6) When the sauce and the pasta are done (try to arrange it so they're both done at the same time, but the sauce can simmer longer than 30 minutes if you need it to, so err on the side of the pasta), drain the pasta and serve it with the sauce. Parmesan cheese is also a nice addition.

You can store any leftover sauce and reheat it in a day or two, when you're ready for more pasta. I reheat in the microwave after adding a little more olive oil and maybe a little more Chianti.