Home cooked tomato sauce with mushrooms

There are tons of tomato sauce recipes out there, and most are pretty delicious. This one has mushrooms because, well, I love mushrooms, and my daughter loves mushrooms. It’s also simple: the only thing that really takes time is simmering. Despite the lovely stock photo, I do not use fresh tomatoes, because it takes more time to chop them and more time to simmer than canned diced tomatoes, and I don’t notice enough of a flavor difference for it to be worth the trouble at this stage of life. Maybe when I’m retired from full time mamahood.

Ingredients:

Avocado oil
1 lb 93% lean ground sirloin (feel free to leave this out to make it vegetarian)
1 yellow onion
3 garlic cloves
2 15 oz cans petite-diced tomatoes
1 15 oz can tomato sauce or tomato puree
1 lb mushrooms, sliced
½ tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper

Directions

Step 1:
Heat about a tablespoon of oil in a large cast iron skillet (or a saucepan) over medium heat. Add the beef, crumbling it into bite sized chunks with your fingers as you add it to the pan. Cook until you no longer see any pink. Remove the beef from the pan using a slotted spoon or spatula and set aside.

Interesting side note: I stopped using olive oil to sauté at the suggestion of the cooking instructor at Zero George in Charleston, SC. He said it burns at a very low temperature, which can compromise the flavor. Then I found this interesting break down by WholeFoods about nutrient composition of oils when heated to higher temps. Cool. Anecdotally, and perhaps most practically: cooking with two children running around my legs I definitely lose track of time, so I like using an oil with a higher smoke point (and turning the burner down a tad lower than normal). With olive oil I feel like a look away for a second and it’s smoking. With avocado oil I haven’t had that happen (yet…).

Step 2:
Add the onion to the pan and cook for a few minutes, until aromatic and turning translucent. Add the garlic and cook an additional minute or two. Then add the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, the cooked ground beef, and salt and pepper and turn the heat to low. Don't cover (you want some of the liquid to evaporate) and remember to stir every few minutes.

Step 3:
Heat another tablespoon of oil in another sauté pan over medium heat. Add just enough mushrooms to cover the bottom of the pan and cook until softened; the color should deepen and they should shrink significantly in size. Add the mushrooms to the tomato sauce. Cook the mushrooms in small batches and add each batch to the sauce, as mushrooms cook better when they're not crowded in a pan.

Note: There are competing schools of thought on cooking mushrooms. The predominant school says don't crowd the mushrooms. Why? Because mushrooms release water as you cook them and if you crowd them, you're effectively steaming the mushrooms instead of sautéing them. However, some people like the idea of steaming mushrooms, because then the mushrooms don't have the opportunity to absorb as much oil. Armed with that knowledge, decide for yourself which you prefer! Or which is easier. That’s usually what I prefer, even if my recipe says “cook in small batches”.

Step 4: simmer until it smells really tasty. Or until you need to serve it because your kids are saying “I’m huuuuunnnggrryyyy” and you’ve already done the veggie snack magic. It can simmer for 45 minutes, or for two hours (on low, stirring regularly).

If you have freezer space, this sauce also freezes well. You can make a couple of batches and save some for later as a great time saver!