Super easy meat sauce

I threw together a meat sauce the other night that ended up being pretty tasty. The secret is letting everything cook on lowish heat for a couple of hours.

I start everything in a large skillet and then transfer everything to my big cast iron dutch oven, because I can't make small batches of anything . . . and I don't want to be lifting the dutch oven several times.

Brown and drain 1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef (93% is what the butcher had) . . . I give my dog the drained off fat and liquids with his food as a treat. (I browned in two batches, salting each batch lightly)

Brown and drain 1 lb hot italian style sausage (I get it from the butcher, and squeeze it out of the casings)

in a little of the fat from the sausage, saute one chopped up onion, several cloves of garlic chopped. Add a jar (two whole peppers) of roasted red bell pepper you've drained and chopped. If you need to, add a little water to help you scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Lightly salt the onions as you put them in the pan.

Transfer everything into the dutch oven. Add a large can crushed tomatoes and a small can tomato paste. Add a little salt, black pepper, a little sugar, possibly a tablespoon of dried italian herb mix, a couple teaspoons dried oregano, a couple tablespoons worchestershire sauce, and if you want about 1/4 tsp cinnamon.

Bring it to a bubble, stirring . . . drop the heat to the lowest level you can still get just a light bubble from . . . cover and stir from time to time . . . turn up the heat if you aren't getting a little bit of a bubble . . . but you don't want it to be actively boiling either. Let it do it's thing for a couple of hours. Taste for seasoning . . . and to make sure the meat is very tender. Turn off, and use, or leave covered for an hour or so and then put in the frig over night.

This makes a very thick sauce. The hot italian sausage adds just a touch of heat. You can also use this sauce to make a baked pasta.