Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

This is the kind of spaghetti and meat sauce that fills the whole house with the smell of something incredible. Ground beef browns with onion and garlic, then simmers for two full hours in tomato sauce with mushrooms, green pepper, red wine, and Italian herbs.

That long simmer is where the magic happens. The wine cooks down, the flavors meld, and the sauce thickens into something that clings to every strand of spaghetti like it was born to be there.

Ladle it over a big pile of hot pasta, top with freshly grated Parmesan, and you’ve got the Italian-American classic that never goes out of style. It feeds six generously and the leftovers are even better the next day.

Kitchen Tips

• Brown the beef properly: Don’t crowd the Dutch oven. Let the beef actually brown and develop color before stirring. That fond on the bottom of the pot is pure flavor.
• The wine goes in halfway: Adding the red wine after the first hour of simmering lets it reduce and concentrate rather than tasting boozy in the finished sauce.
• Low and slow wins: Keep the simmer gentle. A hard boil toughens the meat and reduces the sauce too fast. You want lazy bubbles, not a rolling boil.
• Don’t rinse the pasta: The directions say it and they mean it. That starchy surface helps the sauce grip the spaghetti.