Spaghetti and meat sauce? Pretty easy meal to make, right? Just boil some noodles and pour on some Ragu. Boring! I’m going to teach you how to make your own delicious meaty sauce. Now, the next time you make dinner, you’ll be able to impress your friends with your own flavorful red sauce. Best part — it’s easy to make and might even be cheaper than buying a jar of sauce! I’ll also tell you which game will go well with this meal.

Continue past the cut for another appetizing segment of Cooking Rebels!

(Note: Apologies for the bad photos, my camera is broken. I had to use a crappy camera that was lying around.)

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce

Ingredients
1lb. Ground Beef
1 tsbp. Red Pepper (Crushed)
Minced Garlic
1/3rd Red Onion

2 cans Plain Tomato Sauce (I used one 8 oz and one can 16 oz)
1 tsp. Garlic Powder
2 tsp. Basil
1 tbsp. Olive Oil
1 tsp. Sugar

(Serves 2-3)

Preparation
Add water to a medium-sized pot and put it on the stove. Got it boiling? Good. Now, add the noodles and cover with a lid. Trust me on this, you want to start the pasta first. Not just for this recipe, it’s good advice in general. The noodles always seem to take forever, so you might want to get them going first. Keep an eye on them, though, to prevent them from getting too done.

Alright, we have the easiest part done. Anyone can make spaghetti. Are you ready to make some awesome sauce? No, put that jar of Prego away. Come on, you can do it. It’s just as easy to make your own red sauce, and it’s tastier. Best of all? It’s actually cheaper (after the first time, spices aren’t that cheap).

Let’s get the meat going. Turn the heat to medium and add your ground beef to the pan. Grab your spatula and chop the meat up, stop when the chunks of meat are the size that you want. I like my sauce pretty meaty, so I usually end up with decent size chunks. Cut up some fresh red onion and add it to the pan. Now, add some fresh minced garlic to the pan. How much is up to you. I love garlic, so I tend to dump it on there. You can also add a tablespoon of crushed red pepper for a little bit of extra kick.

Now to make the sauce. In a bowl, pour out the cans of tomato sauce. If you want more sauce for the entrée, go ahead and add another can of tomato sauce. Just remember to adjust the spices accordingly. Add garlic powder (if you’re content with the garlic already in the meat, leave this out), basil, sugar, and olive oil to the tomato sauce. Stir it all together and give it a taste. Delicious, right? Every person’s taste is different, and everybody has their own sauce recipe. Cooking is just another way of expressing yourself. It’s just like drawing a picture or writing a story, just a tad bit tastier. I think this comes across especially well when making a sauce. Go wild, play around a little with the spices until it’s just right, throw in other spices if you want.

By this point, your meat should be nice and brown. Go ahead and add your sauce. Let it warm for another minute and turn off the heat. Congrats, you’re done! Divide it up and serve, then sit back and watch your friends’ faces as they dig in. At this point, you might be wondering what to drink with your meal. With a meaty sauce like this, you can’t go wrong with a darker red wine. I personally served a Shiraz with the pasta. As for sides, either a garden salad or garlic bread will do the trick.

Entertainment

While the dinner itself is pretty awesome, you’ll want to entertain your guests as well. What game will do the trick? What game shares some of the same characteristics of the meal? I’m going to have to go with No More Heroes.

What on Earth could a quirky Japanese action game have to do with spaghetti? Trust me on this one, guys. Let’s be honest here, No More Heroes is not the best looking game in the world. It has a certain cool punk aesthetic to it, but it’s a little rough around the edges. However, even given that, No More Heroes is still a little ugly. The meat sauce is also a little ugly. It’s hard to make a lumpy red mass on a bed of noodles look pretty. Why bother with either? Because you know that they will both be delicious in the end. You can forgive the rough visual if the gameplay (or the flavor) is fantastic.

From the first bite, you know that No More Heroes will be meaty. The combat is solid. You can attack, block, stun, dodge. All of the basics are there and they work well. Just like with our meat sauce, once you start to chew, the medley of spice hits you. That moment comes when you complete your first finishing move in No More Heroes. You know that the basic system is solid, that combat will be fun. Suda-51’s team also added that wonderful spicy kick with the motion-based finishing moves. It’s that flavorful spice that helps set the title apart from other Wii brawlers.

Earlier, I talked about the sauce as an expression of creativity. No More Heroes is one of the most creative games on the Wii. The characters, locations, activities — they all ooze style. Suda-51’s geeky punk utopia isn’t always perfect, but you have to admire it as a creative work. The same could be said for your sauce. Sure, the ingredients are pretty standard. What makes the sauce stand out is your personal touch. The amount of spice, how you mix it. Your own style will shine through in this meal just as well as Suda’s style can be seen in No More Heroes.

Combine No More Heroes and this delicious meaty pasta for an evening to remember. If you make it, tell us how it goes! Have your own sauce recipe? Let us know!