Healthy Pasta Sauce

One of my cousin brought her "homemade" spaghetti to my huge BBQ event back in June. It was different from the regular spaghetti and meat sauce we have normally and it was nostalgic. It reminded me the flavor of "Italian pasta" back when I was a kid in Taiwan.

I tried to replicate my cousin's recipe with some convenient modifications:

Diced Onion
1 Clove of garlic, minced
4 tomatoes, skin removed, seeded and finely diced
6 oz grounded Berkshire pork
1 medium carrot
Half zucchini
Soy sauce
Sugar
Rice wine
Black pepper and salt
Red pepper flakes
Parmesan cheese
Milk
1 Bay leaf
Cooked pasta

1) Marinade grounded pork with soy sauce, rice wine and sugar for ~ 30 minutes
2) Brown pork in a pot and separate into small chunks. Remove pork from the pot.
3) Using the oil from pork to saute onion over medium high heat until translucent. Sautee carrots and zucchini until lightly browned.
4) Add diced tomato and bay leaf into the saute vegetable mix. Bring to a boil and simmer for ~ 20 minutes.
5) Add browned pork to the tomato sauce, bring to a boil and simmer for 20-30 minutes
6) Test the sauce and season with salt, red pepper flakes and Parmesan cheese. If the sauce is too acidic, add milk
7) Add sauce to cooked and strained pasta and season again.

Since I don't put in much dry herbs, the fresh vegetable flavor is much more apparent. There is a whole lot of chopping compared to the canned tomato recipes, but it's worth all the work. The result is tasty, healthy and just the way I like it.