Quick And Simple Meat Sauce

Total Time: 50 mins Preparation Time: 10 mins Cook Time: 40 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 4
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 bell pepper, any color, diced
• 4 ounces cremini mushrooms, roughly chopped
• 1 zucchini, roughly chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
• 12 ounces rao's marinara sauce, half a jar
• 1 lb pasta, any kind
• salt and pepper, to taste
• parmigiano (optional)

Recipe

• 1 heat large, deep sided pan on medium to medium high heat.
• 2 coat bottom of pan with a couple tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.
• 3 heat a large pot of water on high until boiling for the pasta.
• 4 once the oil starts to ripple but before it starts smoking, dump in the onions, mushrooms and red pepper flakes. stir the pan occasionally.
• 5 once the onions start to soften and the mushrooms brown (about 5-7 minutes), season with salt and stir the pan.
• 6 now add the bell pepper and zucchini and stir the pan occasionally.
• 7 once the pepper and zucchini begin to soften, add in the garlic and season again with salt continuing to stir the pan occasionally.
• 8 at this point, the pot of water should be boiling. season the water liberally with salt and add the pasta. cook to al dente.
• 9 once the garlic is very fragrant, stir in the ground beef and break it up into little pieces.
• 10 continue to cook until meat is browned all the way through.
• 11 stir in the marinara sauce. it will be pretty thick, so add in about 1/2 cup of pasta water to thin.
• 12 bring sauce to a boil, then cover, reduce heat and let simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• 13 drain the pasta and put in bowls.
• 14 once the sauce is done, pour over the pasta and then add some parmigiano cheese if you'd like!