It wasn’t very often my mom would cook non-Chinese dishes for us when I was growing up in Toronto. But every now and then, she would make us this delicious chunky Spaghetti with Tomato Meat Sauce recipe for lunch on the weekends.

So whenever I feel home sick, I would try to recreate my mom’s Spaghetti with Meat Sauce recipe. I consider this dish as one of my favorite comfort foods. I’ve never gotten the exact recipe from my sweet mom, but I’ve come up with the recipe from memory and tweaked it over the years.

Is there any dish that brings back childhood memories for you and perhaps has become a comfort food for you?

Spaghetti with Meat Sauce
Serves 3-4

300-400g spaghetti (about 100g per person)
400g ground beef
15 white button mushrooms
1 small green capsicum
1 large brown onion
5 basil leaves, roughly chopped
400g tomato sauce, canned
500g chopped tomatoes, canned
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp Italian Seasoning, dried herb
1 tsp sugar
salt & pepper
1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
grated parmesan cheese, for serving

Boil a large pot of salted water and cook the spaghetti until al dente (check the package directions).  Chop the onions, capsicum, mushrooms and garlic.

Over medium heat, add 1/2 tbsp of the olive oil to a large saucepan and slowly cook the mushrooms with a pinch of salt.  Continue to cook until all the moisture has evaporated.   Set aside.

Over medium-low heat, add the remaining olive oil and chopped onions.  Cook until the onions have soften and slightly caramelized.

Turn up the heat to medium-high and add the garlic and ground beef, and cook until the beef turns from pink to brown.  Then add the capsicum and the cooked mushrooms and cook for another 3 minutes.

Add the tomato sauce, crushed tomatoes and tomato paste and bring to a simmer.   Stir in the Italian Seasoning and sugar and add salt and pepper to taste.

Lower to medium-low heat and allow the sauce to simmer for 20 minutes to reduce.  Just before you turn off the heat, stir in the roughly chopped basil leaves.  Plate the spaghetti and pour the meat sauce over the pasta.  Sprinkle some parmesan and serve!