> > > Dave makes an amazing spaghetti sauce that, aside from the usual ingredients, also
> > > contains shredded carrots, sliced mushrooms, and Scotch Bonnet hot peppers (the yellow ones)...
> >
> > My spaghetti sauce, when I make it properly, has the sliced mushrooms (sometimes diced)
> > and the yellow peppers. I have never tried the shredded carrots, but I have heard it
> > recommended by a few people, and Amanda's mother used to include them. I never really
> > noticed them (tastewise-- I could see them, of course) so I suppose that is a vote in favor
> > of shredded carrots in spo sauce.
> >
> > Some other ingredients I like to include in my spaghetti sauce:
> > Broccoli
> > Diced celery
> > Red and green peppers
> > Diced onions
> > Pressed garlic
> > Spices (Oregano, crushed basil, and garlic powder top this list)
> > Ground beef
> > Chicken breast chunks
> > More things, but I can't call any to mind right now for some reason.

Don't forget how you do the onions! Try pre-cooking them first until they get to the yummy caramelized stage. I do this for the same reason that Mrs. Grishny uses the carrots, as a way of enhancing natural sweetness. Adding sun-dried tomatoes also gives a good boost of flavour. Using fresh herbs as well as the dried ones is good too, but to round things out I still add dry oregano and sweet basil (the de rigueur must-have ingredients of Italian cooking), as well as dried onion and garlic powder.

We find the "real trick" to making great spaghetti sauce is slow cooking. At least 3 hours of simmering on low to mingle flavours and reduce liquid content. That part can't be skipped, or faked in a pressure cooker, and it makes a HUGE difference. (I think, though, that for slow cooking it might be a bad idea to include broccoli.)


> My wife never uses store-bought pasghetti sauce. She makes her own, and although she doesn't use shredded carrots, she always throws in either a few peeled whole carrots, or a bunch of those little pre-whittled baby carrots that you can buy in the store. She uses the carrots to sweeten the sauce, as an alternative to sugar.
>
> The sauce is really good, and I like to eat the carrots too. Raw carrots are good, but cooked carrots rule.
>

Did I ever mention before that baby carrots are actually made from adult carrots... using a pencil-sharpening sort of device?

Aw. That might destroy the mystique of buying baby carrots for you.


> Gri"tripe sounds like a spice"shny

Wolf "whoops, can't think of any spices that sound similar to tripe" spirit