Dad's Spaghetti

This is one of my favorite dishes. Although it is tomato and meat sauce based, this is not your traditional Italian style pasta. For this dish you will need these.

In a twelve inch skillet heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil over medium high heat.

To this add a whole yellow onion chopped.

Saute for a minute or two, then add a couple of cloves of garlic and cook for a minute longer.

 Now add a 14.5 ounce can of whole tomatoes (squish 'em up in a bowl first), a 14.5 ounce can of tomato sauce (we used two 8 ounce cans of salt free), a half a can of water, a dash of hot pepper sauce, a tablespoon or so of Worcestershire sauce, 3/4 teaspoon of chili powder, a teaspoon of sugar, a tablespoon of Italian seasoning crushed, and  eight ounces of sliced mushrooms.

Bring sauce to a low boil and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally. Set a timer for twenty five minutes. At the twenty five minute mark start browning a pound to a pound and a half of ground sirloin (don't chinch out here; you don't want a greasy mess). Lots of twists of ground pepper.

As soon as it is browned

Drain off the liquid and stir into the sauce. Correct the seasonings (You'll probably need a little salt if you used salt free tomatoes).

Place a cover loosely over the sauce and reduce the heat to keep a low simmer.

Begin cooking eight ounce of vermicelli as per the box instructions. Drain (do not rinse) and stir into the sauce.

Mix well, cover the mixture tightly, and reduce the heat to warm. Wait at least ten minutes and it should look like this.

And into a pasta bowl it goes. I like a little parm cheese on mine.

Now I know some of you are going "I don't like my pasta and sauce mixed together". Well, get over it bitches! The vermicelli expands as it absorbs the sauce and that's what makes this so good. It's even better the next day when you nuke it. I've tried using whole wheat and/or healthier pastas but I have not found one that will absorb the sauce. If you know of one please let me know.