My family loves this easy Mushrooms Beef Pasta Sauce. We use it over pasta and sometimes over rice too. It holds well for few days in the refrigerator. It is also keto friendly if you were to eat it with a side salad or steamed veggies instead of pasta. Whenever my husband and I try to do a bit of low carb diet, this is one of our favorite recipes. My husband and I would eat it with salad and the kids with pasta. This way I don’t have to cook 2 separate dinners for my family.
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My Grandparents’ Beef Pasta Sauce
My grandparents used to prepare an awesome ground beef pasta sauce. It was one of my favorite lunches. They cooked it on low heat over our wood oven stovetop. We lived in an apartment building and as most Albanian families at the time, living room and kitchen was one and the same space. I remember sitting over the kitchen table trying to do homework and see them cooking this sauce and taking their time to add each ingredient in. Life ran at a slower pace back then.
Over the years, I have tried to replicate their beef pasta sauce recipe with little success until recently. The ground beef sauces I used to make were good, even great but they weren’t my grandparents’ recipe. I blamed it on my memory and lack of a family recipe book. We all cooked by eye balling ingredients and quantities. Skill came into play on the amount of heat applied and timing of adding every ingredient in.
Little by little I realized that I had the list of ingredients right. What was missing was time & patience!! So I decided to try the recipe again lowering the heat and letting all the ingredients simmer together slowly. And Voila!!! That did the trick!! As busy parents, we are sometimes looking for that perfect gourmet, healthy dinner cooked under 30 minutes. This recipe requires some time, but you won’t be disappointed:)
My grandparents recipe didn’t have mushrooms. I enjoy several mushrooms/ beef or chicken recipes like this Creamy Spinach Chicken with Mushrooms. So one day I decided to add mushrooms to my favorite pasta sauce. Maybe unconsciously I was trying to add more vegetables to my food so my kids can eat more veggies. Getting toddlers to eat veggies is a mission, so I’m in a never ending journey to stuff veggies in every meal:).
Mushrooms Beef Pasta Sauce Recipe
Last I cooked this recipe was last Sunday and I served this pasta sauce over Gluten Free Quinoa Pasta. We had all eaten the mushrooms beef pasta sauce before, but not this new pasta. It’s definitely a new favorite dinner combination in our household going forward. I highly recommend it if you have any gluten sensitivities.
Mushrooms Beef Pasta Sauce
Ingredients
- 10 ozs mushrooms
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 medium yellow onion
- 5 garlic cloves
- 2 plum tomatoes use a food processor to crush
- 1 can (14 ozs) diced tomatoes if you can dice fresh tomatoes, even better
- 1 cup fresh chopped parsley
- 4 bay leaves
- 1 tbsp dry oregano
- salt/pepper to taste
- 4 tbsps olive oil if ground beef has a higher % of fat, I usually do 3 tbsps of olive oil, or if the ground beef is very lean than i can add a bit more.
Instructions
- Saute minced garlic and finely chopped onion with olive oil over medium heat.
- When onion becomes translucent, add ground beef and stir often so onion doesn’t get burnt.
- Once meat is browned well, then add the crushed plum tomatoes and the can of diced tomatoes. Mix well and stir slowly until sauce starts to boil. Lower heat to low. Make sure the plum tomatoes are soft so they can provide enough juice for cooking the sauce.
- Add bay leaves, parsley and oregano. Stir occasionally and let it simmer on low temperature. If you cook it on higher temps, sauce will dry up and burn. You want to keep the temperature low. Keep the pan covered when you’re not stirring.
- Add salt/pepper and mushrooms around 40 minutes. Mix well, let it simmer again for another 20 minutes. Let it cool down, serve over favorite pasta, rice or with a side of salad.
Holly Bird
I made this!! It is awesome I highly recommend this it is easy to make and the family loves it!!
admin
Holly, thank youuuu for trying it out!!! You are the best:))). If you have any tips , feel free to share in comments.
I feel the tomato consistency might be the biggest ?? because it can make the sauce more watery or more dry so that has to be eye balled a bit.
Holly Bird
I wouldn’t change a thing, the taste was unique, and really satisfying!
Edel
My mouth is watering and now I want to make the sauce and serve it over rice. I know, not so good choice, but for some reason, it seems it will taste better hehe. I agree that before, our pace was slower and we took time to do things without the rush of now. Thanks for the recipe!
Sheila
Great recipe! I am going to try it. What if I don’t have plum tomatoes?
admin
Any tomatoes should work as long as they are not green or hard. I usually buy them few days before for salads and whatever I didn’t use in salads gets soft few days later and that’s what i use for sauces.
Lusine
I will try this sauce next time I make pasta. It needs a try!
Sonila
Feel free to add more tomatoes to your taste and/or a looser consistency in the sauce. Enjoy:)
Lorraine
Looks great Sonila! And yes the best food is the ones cooked with love and patience. My hubby always says my food tastes better when I’m not rushing the cooking process.
admin
Definitely that’s the secret ingredient!!