Mom's Spaghetti Sauce

My Mom wrote down some of her favorite recipes and I thought I would add her spaghetti sauce here. But I have to tell you, it seemed heavy on the tomato paste. So, I include her recipe here, and in the ingredients section, I add how I changed it. The basic recipe is solid; with all recipes, you add, subtract, and edit to your own taste. Here it is.

Ingredients:

• One 28 oz can of whole tomatoes

• Two 12 oz cans of tomato paste (I changed this to 2 tablespoons Centro double concentrated tomato paste)

• 1 1/2 paste cans of water 

• 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms

• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

• 1 tablespoon Italian herb blend seasoning

• 1 bell pepper, cored, seeded, and cut into strips (I omitted this)

• Crushed red pepper to taste (I added 2 teaspoons)

• 1 teaspoon sugar

• 1 tablespoon minced onion

• 2 teaspoons oregano 

• 1/2 teaspoon crushed garlic

• 1 lb. ground beef or Italian sausage (I opted for sausage)

• 1 tablespoon Parmesan cheese

Directions:

• Put tomatoes in a high-sided pan / Dutch oven and crush tomatoes into small pieces. 

• Cook on low heat until tomatoes break down - it should be watery, not lumpy

• While tomatoes are cooking, brown ground beef or sausage. Only brown the beef or sausage and let it finish cooking in the sauce.

• When the tomatoes have broken down, add tomato paste and 1 1/2 cans of water to the tomatoes. (In my case, I added 2 tablespoons of Centro paste and 1 1/2 cans of water to the tomatoes, mixed it, and continued to let it cook).

• Add all other ingredients and cook on low heat until the sauce reaches desired consistency. The longer it cooks, the better it is. 

• If the sauce is too thick, thin it with a little water or red wine. 

• While cooking, correct seasoning to taste.