Red/marinara sauce is not my favorite but Vince loves it. He’s always told me that his dad made pasta sauce every Sunday. Sometimes they had meatballs but always he used the leftover beef and pork from the week. Pork chops. Pork roast. Steak. Roast.
We rarely have leftovers, unless I make a point to have them, because I plan to use them all for the next meal. I had not planned any leftovers for past sauce and I want to make this recipe to today – Bucatini all’Amatrician. Of all the red sauce recipes I’ve tried, I like this one the best because there’s no oregano, which is the main thing I don’t like about most red sauces. Usually I have meatballs in the freezer but I’ve used them all and haven’t made more – mainly because when I make them, I start with 10 pounds of ground beef and a few pounds of ground pork. Right now, I don’t have any place in the freezer where I can place them to flash freeze them. I’m not going to make a small batch of meatballs because it takes about as long to make a dozen as it does to make 12 dozen meatballs.
Last night I asked Vince .. do you care if I make spaghetti and sauce with no meat? Yes, he wanted meat. He said “Just use leftover meat”. There were no leftovers so I took a small roast out of the freezer last night and put it in the fridge. This morning, it still frozen pretty solid.
I used a serrated knife and “sawed” through the frozen roast so it would fit into the pressure cooker and it’s cooking now. I’ll use part of the roast for “leftovers” for the sauce and we’ll have the rest of the roast with
Here’s how I’m entering this as the cost for this meal:
- The roast was 1.5 pounds total. The beef we bought came out to $4.16/pound on average so that’s what I use for ground beef, roast, steak – everything. That makes a 1.5 pound roast having cost about $6.25. I’ll use half this roast for the sauce and half for sub sandwiches later in the week so I’m going to count the meat in this one as $3.00.
- Crushed tomatoes – $1
- Bacon (in place of pancetta) – $2
- Onion, Garlic, Spices – $1
- Butter (1/2 stick) – .50
- Basil – I have it growing so I’m not counting any cost for that.
- Bucatini – $1 (I’ll only use half a package)
Thus, the cost of this dish is $8.50 for both of us. We will not eat it all today but there will not be enough for both of us to eat it again so I’ll just count it as one meal.
We’ll also have Caesar Salad. I’ll make the croutons and make the dressing, and we’ll have garlic bread so I’m adding another $1.50 to the meal for a total of $10 (with no tip for the cook, the server or the cleanup crew!) 🙁
Note: Pancetta – I rarely have it. It isn’t easy to find here. When I do find it, it’s outrageously expensive. I don’t mind substituting bacon but my preference is to make my own pancetta using this recipe. I’ve used the last of what I have and will make more soon and share how I do it when I make it.