Venison Spaghetti Sauce

Tonight's dinner: Venison spaghetti! This is one of my favorite fast, easy meals that makes lots of leftovers for later. I know, you're probably all thinking "Venison? Isn't that bambi? Eeeewwww!" But what can I say? My dad is a hunter and I grew up eating venison several times a week for dinner. Venison steaks, venison burgers, and a family favorite: venison burrito night. Even when my sister was mostly vegetarian, she would eat venison. Venison has many merits: first of all, it's an extremely lean meat, which means that if you love red meat but can't have all the fat deer meat is for you. Also, it's much better for the environment than beef (if you worry about these things); cattle farming is harsh on our atmosphere and our soils, whereas many areas (at least in the United States) are largely overpopulated with deer. In a way, hunting them is more humane than allowing the deer to starve or waste away from diseases from living in close quarters with few resources. Finally, because venison generally comes from the wild, you are far less likely to be consuming the nasty hormones and chemicals present in commercially-farmed meats. Again, this is just some information for those of you who care about it. I just like the flavor, and it's what I'm used to and I have a fairly reliable free source from my dad.

If all of that still hasn't convinced you that venison is the cure for world hunger and that we should all start eating it daily, well, you can just substitute ground beef or ground turkey in this recipe. Which is really less of a recipe and more of a guideline. When improving spaghetti sauce, I just sort of dump in whatever I can find, to taste. But here's the general list of ingredients that went in tonight:



1/2 pound ground venison (my dad's includes a bit of beef fat so it'll hold together for burgers, but shhhh don't tell my sister) or ground beef or ground turkey
1 jar (about 24 ounces) of a basic spaghetti sauce of your choice
Salt
Black pepper
White pepper
Cayenne pepper
Italian seasoning mix (or make your own with oregano, basil, parsley)
Dried Basil
Garlic powder
Olive oil

After you get your water boiling for your pasta of choice, start by heating a large pan to medium-low heat and drizzle with a tablespoon or so of olive oil, just enough to keep the meat from sticking. Once your pan is hot, add your ground meat and mix it around slightly frequently to keep it from burning. At this stage, you want the meat to brown. As you brown the meat, begin to add your seasonings. About half a teaspoon of each will likely suffice, but I typically just add it until the surface is lightly seasoned. This is not an exact science. Once your meat is browned, turn your heat to low or simmering and stir in your sauce. Once it has warmed a bit, taste the meat sauce. You can then add more of whichever spices please you to taste. For me, this generally means a bit more cayenne, black pepper, garlic and Italian seasoning because most store-bought sauces are just a little too bland and sweet for me. Keep your sauce on the lowest heat until your pasta is finished cooking. Stir occasionally to keep anything from burning on the bottom. Drain your pasta and spoon some of your tasty meat sauce over it. Add cheese to taste.

This recipe will make 4-6 servings of sauce. For our family of two, this means that we can freeze most of the sauce in 2-person portions for later use. This is particularly awesome because you can take a portion of sauce out the night before and when you get home from work, all you have to do is cook the pasta and pop the sauce in the microwave to heat it up.

Aside from choosing your meat for this sauce (go try venison!), there are some other modifications your could try:

-- Use fresh minced garlic and onions to season your meat instead of garlic powder.

-- Make your own tomato sauce. This is not something I have yet tried, but a quick Google search will likely lead you in the right direction.

-- Vary your spices. For tonight's dinner, we were using a spicy marinara base, so I added some extra peppers. You could also add onion powder, rosemary, sage, cinnamon (I love this, but my fiance does not), etc.

-- Add in some chopped vegetables. Again, this is something that I have not tried, but some carrots and broccoli would not go amiss in this sauce. I'm just not sure at which step you would add it in.

Bon apetit!