Recipe Wednesday: Perfect Meat Sauce

You know I'm a HUGE fan of my crock pot.  Remember the best pulled pork?? Here's a super, super simple recipe but it delivers a huge amount of flavor. I've made this recipe a zillion times...for my family, for large gatherings, for parties...it's a hit every time. Double the recipe to feed a crowd!!

The key is chopping your veggies really finely. You can prepare the ingredients the night before, load them into the crock pot and just turn it on the next morning--that's what I usually do :)

 The Perfect Meat Sauce

1 lb. lean ground beef (turkey works, too!)
1 small onion, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1 jar (or 3 cups) of marinara sauce--I only use Gina Rispoli (see below--it's the BEST!!)
Salt/pepper

1. In a large skillet with some olive oil, brown ground beef; add to crock pot.

2. In the same pan, add onions, garlic, carrot and celery. Cook until veggies are slightly soft; add to crock pot.

3. Add marinara sauce to crock pot; stir to combine.

4. Cook sauce on low for 7-8 hours or high for 4-5 hours.

5. In the meantime, cook pasta (whatever kind you like!) according to package directions. Reserve one cup of the cooking liquid.  If necessary, add some cooking liquid to the meat sauce to make it less thick. Season with salt and pepper.

6. Combine pasta and sauce and serve with lots of Parmesan (and lots of red wine) :)