Meaty Pasta Sauce

Decided to try some homemade spaghetti sauce.  Here is the recipe I eventually arrived at...

Meaty Pasta Sauce


Ingredients:

• 1 bulb garlic, small dice
• 1 onion, small dice
• 1 Tbsp Basil
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 3 cans (15oz) tomato sauce
• 3 Tbsp Balsamic vinegar
• 1 lb ground beef
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• ½ cup red wine (I used a de-alcoholized Merlot)
• 3 Tbsp masa flour

Directions

1) In a sauce pan, sauté onion and garlic in olive oil until soft
2) Add Basil and mix well
3) Add tomato sauce and Balsamic vinegar and mix well.
4) In separate skillet, brown beef with salt and pepper and Worcestershire sauce.
5) When meat is cooked, drain the grease and run the meat through a food processor to get it finely chopped. Then add it to the sauce pan.
6) De-glaze the skillet with the wine.
7) Add masa flour to the skillet and stir to create a paste. Add the paste to the sauce and mix well.

Not sure if the wine or Worcestershire sauce added a discernible flavor, but the Balsamic vinegar certainly did.  I had read recipes where people used sugar to cut down on the potential bitterness of the tomato sauce.  Well, the Balsamic vinegar essentially served that purpose and gave the sauce a rich, slightly sweet  flavor as well.  The masa flour could have been omitted had I had enough time to let the sauce reduce.  I could also have used some other Italian seasonings with this, but I found it to be fairly balanced as it was.  Definitely a recipe I would try again.