Dinner tonight
People and friends and humans: this is the best thing to eat in the whole world. I could eat this every night for the rest of my life and be PERFECTLY OKAY WITH THAT.
You need: a pound of extra lean or lean ground beef. Preferably beef that comes from happy cows that were treated well. You want the flavour to come from the meat not the fat, you know? Also you need a lot of garlic, and black pepper, and red cooking wine (although I've used white vermouth a couple times with success), and a big can of diced tomatoes. And salt and oregano and noodles.
I used to think the brand of diced tomatoes was important because some were too soupy, but it turns out I was just being an idiot and not cooking it all enough.
Basically heat up a pan and put the ground beef in it, along with a huge amount of fresh ground black pepper (seriously so it looks like you dropped it in a flowerpot) and also about three cloves of garlic all chopped up. I don't chop them up too much because I'm lazy, so they just are discs. Keep shoving the meat around with a spoon or whatever, so that it falls apart a lot and cooks well and gets really brown and stops smelling like the floor of a circus tent. Although that happens more with pork, I find, the nasty half-way cooked smell. Don't add oil or anything, because you want the fat of the meat to get cooked away so this whole thing doesn't give you the runs.
When the meat is all cooked -- which should be around the same time that the garlic pieces are all browned up -- pour four good glugs of wine in, and let it simmer for a half a minute.
Then you dump the tomatoes in! More black pepper, salt, a couple pinches of oregano, and another two cloves of cut up garlic.
This is the most important part of the whole recipe: Put the lid on with a little crack for steam to come out, and cook the dickens out of that thing for like FORTY MINUTES. It will drive you crazy because it smells so good, but don't give up! In fact, don't even put the water for the noodles on until you have at least added the tomatoes. If you want even more awesomeness, you can, on adding the tomatoes, switch everything into a pan and BAKE IT. That makes it so good you will probably die, so be careful.
Use a lot of water to cook a package of spaghetti, really salty water so they cook slow. Lots of water = more starch can dissolve out of the noodles and they'll taste better. Even cheap-ass noodles can taste good if you use enough salt and water to cook them. Plus you can put some olive oil and black pepper in the water, it might NOT have any discernable effect but it seems fun to do.
Is the sauce done yet? It's done if it looks like it's frying instead of stewing, which is to say, it's not wet anymore. Put the sauce in the bottom of a big bowl. Drain the noodles and drop them onto the sauce and stir it all up and try to not pass out from the wonderful smell. EAT UNTIL YOU FEEL SICK. If I play my cards right, I can usually eat the whole thing in one day, but it takes a few servings spread over a few hours.
It keeps pretty well in the fridge, and doesn't really need to be heated up to be enjoyed later, which is cool.
Oh man I am going to cook this right now.
Hey okay also: if you have one of those premixed spice grinders, that's fun too. I have one that has dried hot peppers, black pepper, and some other stuff, and using that with the black pepper is great.
One last note: You may notice that the ingredients are very simple. Probably you could make this using any quality of ingredients and it would turn out well. Try it with organic beef! With convenience store pasta! Pre-ground pepper! Don't use those terrifying frozen garlic cubes though. Garlic is meant to stink you up dammit YES.
You need: a pound of extra lean or lean ground beef. Preferably beef that comes from happy cows that were treated well. You want the flavour to come from the meat not the fat, you know? Also you need a lot of garlic, and black pepper, and red cooking wine (although I've used white vermouth a couple times with success), and a big can of diced tomatoes. And salt and oregano and noodles.
I used to think the brand of diced tomatoes was important because some were too soupy, but it turns out I was just being an idiot and not cooking it all enough.
Basically heat up a pan and put the ground beef in it, along with a huge amount of fresh ground black pepper (seriously so it looks like you dropped it in a flowerpot) and also about three cloves of garlic all chopped up. I don't chop them up too much because I'm lazy, so they just are discs. Keep shoving the meat around with a spoon or whatever, so that it falls apart a lot and cooks well and gets really brown and stops smelling like the floor of a circus tent. Although that happens more with pork, I find, the nasty half-way cooked smell. Don't add oil or anything, because you want the fat of the meat to get cooked away so this whole thing doesn't give you the runs.
When the meat is all cooked -- which should be around the same time that the garlic pieces are all browned up -- pour four good glugs of wine in, and let it simmer for a half a minute.
Then you dump the tomatoes in! More black pepper, salt, a couple pinches of oregano, and another two cloves of cut up garlic.
This is the most important part of the whole recipe: Put the lid on with a little crack for steam to come out, and cook the dickens out of that thing for like FORTY MINUTES. It will drive you crazy because it smells so good, but don't give up! In fact, don't even put the water for the noodles on until you have at least added the tomatoes. If you want even more awesomeness, you can, on adding the tomatoes, switch everything into a pan and BAKE IT. That makes it so good you will probably die, so be careful.
Use a lot of water to cook a package of spaghetti, really salty water so they cook slow. Lots of water = more starch can dissolve out of the noodles and they'll taste better. Even cheap-ass noodles can taste good if you use enough salt and water to cook them. Plus you can put some olive oil and black pepper in the water, it might NOT have any discernable effect but it seems fun to do.
Is the sauce done yet? It's done if it looks like it's frying instead of stewing, which is to say, it's not wet anymore. Put the sauce in the bottom of a big bowl. Drain the noodles and drop them onto the sauce and stir it all up and try to not pass out from the wonderful smell. EAT UNTIL YOU FEEL SICK. If I play my cards right, I can usually eat the whole thing in one day, but it takes a few servings spread over a few hours.
It keeps pretty well in the fridge, and doesn't really need to be heated up to be enjoyed later, which is cool.
Oh man I am going to cook this right now.
Hey okay also: if you have one of those premixed spice grinders, that's fun too. I have one that has dried hot peppers, black pepper, and some other stuff, and using that with the black pepper is great.
One last note: You may notice that the ingredients are very simple. Probably you could make this using any quality of ingredients and it would turn out well. Try it with organic beef! With convenience store pasta! Pre-ground pepper! Don't use those terrifying frozen garlic cubes though. Garlic is meant to stink you up dammit YES.