Elk Spaghetti Sauce

You may not have ground elk lying around... I actually did, because I got some elk and venison shipped to me, and one package of elk had started to thaw. That meant I needed to go ahead and use it, and, with the warmer weather, I wasn't in the mood for chili. (I made an amazing venison chili a month or so ago!) You can use elk or venison, or a lean ground beef for this recipe. It's supposed to be a baked spaghetti recipe, but, since gluten free pasta doesn't reheat well, I'm just making the sauce and will serve it the usual way.

INGREDIENTS

2 cups canned diced tomatoes
2 cups tomato sauce
1 cup water
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced green bell pepper (I didn't use, and doubled the onion to make up for it)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves (I used flat leaf)
1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
1 1/2 teaspoons House Seasoning, recipe follows
1 1/2 teaspoons seasoning salt (I used Lawrys)
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
2 small bay leaves
1 1/2 pounds ground beef (I used elk)

House Seasoning:
1 cup salt
1/4 cup black pepper
1/4 cup garlic powder

NOTE: I didn't make the House Seasoning, I just used the approximate equivalents of each of the three ingredients separately. I figure I'll have to tweak the seasoning at the end anyway!

ALSO, I'm not sure why she (it's a Paula Deen recipe) used 2 c of each kind of tomatoes, when canned ones are usually 14 1/2 or 15 oz. I just used a 15 oz can of diced, and a 15 oz can of sauce.

Put the tomatoes, water, onion, pepper, garlic, spices, sugar and bay leaves in a medium stockpot with the water (I used 1/2 a can of water). Bring to boil on high, then turn down and simmer for 1 hour. Because everything was pretty roughly chopped, I decided to puree it (not too smooth, just to get rid of the big chunks) in my immersion blender. (DON'T do what I did and forget to remove the bay leaves... just sayin'...) That's just a matter of taste - you can leave it chunky!

Brown, crumble and drain your meat and add to the sauce. (How gorgeous is that elk?! It's so lean it didn't really have anything to drain.) Simmer for at least 20 more minutes, or until ready to serve. With game meats, I like to cook low and slow, so I cooked it on very low for over 4 hours. Serve over pasta. Of course we used gluten free spaghetti!

If you want to make the baked spaghetti dish, head over to the original recipe - OR basically you cook 8 oz of pasta, drain, and layer 1/2  in a 13x9 baking dish sprayed with cooking spray. Add a little less than 1/2 of a combination of 1 c shredded cheddar and 1 c shredded Monterey Jack. Repeat the past and cheese, the top with the sauce. Bake 30 min at 350, then add the remaining cheese. Cook 5 more min or until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

RP Servings: 3 if you want meat in every serving. 4 if you're not too worried about meat quantity!

RATING: 3 1/2 - but it could be a 4!
The only thing keeping this from being a 4 is that it was way too salty. I added about 1 tsp of agave to the sauce before I served it which helped, but it was still a bit on the salty side, especially with parmesan. The recipe doesn't specify no-salt-added tomatoes, but that's one option for reducing the saltiness. Another would be to leave out the salt from the "homemade seasoning". We really liked it, though - my husband came in after he finished his (we didn't eat together because Duke was playing in the Final 4 and, well, let's just say it's best if he watches that alone (and texts the kids). :)