Hearty Spaghetti Sauce for a Crowd

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Last week I packed my gear and headed off to Girls Camp…

with these wonderful Young Women Leaders…

…and some amazing Young Women. We had a great time together (amidst the dirt, bugs and one powerful rain storm!) For dinner one night we had a pasta bar.

We made several kinds of pasta (my friend Cindi prepped these at home, cooking them until they were not quite “al-dente” and then placing them in Ziploc bags. At camp we finished cooking them for a few minutes each in hot boiling water).

We also served a hearty meat sauce (recipe in this post) and an alfredo sauce.

We also offered shredded rotisserie chicken, meatballs and crumbled sausage to put on top, as well as mushrooms, broccoli, grape tomatoes, onions and fresh Parmesan cheese. There was also a giant green salad and some yummy breadsticks (recipe coming soon!)

It was delicious! However, I’m not sure we would have planned such an elaborate meal had we wrapped our minds around the conditions of the camp ground we were at. We ended up having to park our food truck a fair distance away from our cooking area, additionally we had to haul water from the same far away distance, which packed a lot of time onto our kitchen experience…as you can well imagine! 🙂 A good lesson in “know your campsite” before you show up with 700 components to a pasta bar, including fresh Parmesan cheese for the masses that needs to be grated with the shear muscle power of any Young Woman Leader with a willing heart. Ha!

Did I mention it tasted great? It did. 🙂 We had a lot of happy campers. I made the Hearty Meat Sauce and breadsticks ahead of time and froze them. I thought there may be a few of you who would like having these recipes in your repertoire. The hearty meat sauce works great for large groups and can be made well in advance and frozen. It’s also wonderful to make if you are prepping several freezer meals at once. You can use it for Spaghetti Pie, Lasagna, Lasagna Casserole, etc. Hearty Spaghetti Sauce for the win!

Spaghetti Sauce for a Crowd

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 55 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 5 minutes

Yield: 40-50 servings

Ingredients

2 pounds ground sausage

3 onions, chopped

2 Tb garlic, minced

8 (28 ounce) cans crushed tomatoes

8 (8 ounce) cans tomato sauce

1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste

3 tsp fennel

6 bay leaves

1 1/2 T oregano

1 1/2 Tb Italian seasoning

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp salt

4 T beef bullion granules

4 T lemon juice

4 Tb brown sugar

6 Tb olive oil

1 1/2 Tb balsamic vinegar

Instructions

1. Into a large stock pot, or sauce pan place the sausage, onion and garlic. Brown over medium high heat until the sausage is cooked through and the onions are translucent.

2. Add all the other ingredients and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer over medium high heat.

3. Stirring occasionally, allow it to simmer for 45 minutes.

Serve immediately, or refrigerate/freeze until ready to use. Will keep in the fridge for 1 week and in the freezer for up to 3 months. To freeze, allow it to come to room temperature, then carefully pour into Ziploc bags or glad-ware storage containers. When you are ready to serve, thaw completely and reheat in a sauce pan over medium high heat, stirring occasionally to be sure it doesn't burn to the bottom of the pan.

https://jamiecooksitup.net/2017/07/hearty-spaghetti-sauce-for-a-crowd/

Recipe from www.jamiecooksitup.net

Recipe from Jamie Cooks It Up!