I really do love the flavour and richness of my own Spaghetti Sauce, which I posted about HERE, but there’s something about this Spaghetti Sauce recipe that is so wonderful, and delicious, and different enough from my own that it simply needs its own post.

Here it’s called Al Trotter’s Signature Spaghetti Sauce, but to the Trotters it was affectionately called “Sh*t Your Pants Sauce” (not a word of a lie…), because it’s so rich and garlicky you keep eating until you, well, poop yourself I guess…not that I recommend this course of action!

Trotter Family Spaghetti Sauce

Wonderful as-is with spaghetti or other pasta, or an excellent base for lasagne!

Note: This can be made vegetarian by substituting the ground beef for reconstituted TVP (textured vegetable protein), and either omitting the Worcestershire sauce or replacing with a vegan alternative.

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 lb. lean ground beef
• 1 large cooking or Spanish onion, thinly sliced
• 8 cloves garlic, minced, divided
• 1 green pepper, diced
• 2 coloured bell peppers, diced
• 1 pint (2 cups) field mushrooms, cleaned, stemmed, and sliced thinly
• 375mL red wine
• 2 tbsp Italian blend seasoning (or equivalent in dried oregano, basil, thyme, and rosemary)
• 2 tins seasoned diced tomatoes
• 1 tin tomato paste
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp hot sauce
• ½ tsp red pepper flakes
• ½ tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp brown sugar (optional)

Heat oil in large frypan over medium heat; cook ground beef with 4 cloves garlic until no longer pink. Remove from pan. Do not clean out pan.

In same pan, with remaining fat left from frying the ground beef (if less than 2 tbsp, top up with more olive oil), gently fry onion and 4 cloves of garlic for one minute, until limp and fragrant. Add peppers and mushrooms, and stir to combine. Add red wine and stir thoroughly; turn heat to medium-low and stir frequently, allowing wine to reduce completely until vegetables are fully cooked and dry.

Add cooked ground beef either into a crockpot and set on low for 6-8 hours, or if your frying pan is large enough to hold it all, back into the pan along with all remaining ingredients; stir thoroughly to combine. Bring heat up to medium high and bring mixture to a simmering boil. Stir frequently, and allow to combine flavours into a sauce. Season to taste at this point for extra salt, herbs, garlic, spiciness, or anything else it may need. If the taste is a little “tinny” or overly acidic, you can add the brown sugar to counteract the acidity. Let simmer another 10 minutes (½ hour in crockpot)  and recheck for flavour.

If you want a smooth sauce, you can purée with an immersion blender at this point, or cool the sauce down and use a standard blender (caution: cool the sauce down first, or you may burn yourself!)