Name: Weeknight Meat Sauce with Plant-Based Meat
Total time: 50 min
Ingredients: 4 ounces white mushrooms , trimmed and quartered; 1 onion , chopped coarse; 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil; 1/2 teaspoon table salt; 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper; 6 garlic cloves , minced; 1 tablespoon tomato paste; 1 tablespoon minced fresh oregano , divided, or 1 teaspoon dried; 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes; 1 (14.5-ounce) can diced tomatoes , drained with ¼ cup juice reserved; 12 ounces plant-based ground meat; 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes

Why This Recipe Works

When it comes to Italian pasta, it doesn't matter whether you're Team Red Sauce or Team Meat Sauce. This weeknight-friendly, crowd-feeding recipe delivers the best of both worlds, so you don't have to choose. The sauce is garlicky and sweetly tomatoey thanks to a trifecta of tomatoes—crushed, diced, and paste—for ideal chunky-smooth texture and deep flavor. It's also eminently satiating thanks to the inclusion of both crumbled plant-based meat and mushrooms. We first develop a fond by searing mushrooms and an onion (finely chopped to help them integrate into the sauce), holding the meat back until later to ensure that it stays succulent and juicy. We then deglaze the pan with a splash of the juice from the canned tomatoes, scraping all that flavorful browning back into the sauce. The sauce takes just 45 minutes and can be prepared up to a month in advance, so you can use half a batch of this generously portioned sauce for dinner tonight and save the rest for whenever the next craving hits.

Before You Begin

If using dried oregano, add the entire amount with the garlic in step 3.

Instructions

Pulse mushrooms and onion in food processor until finely chopped, about 8 pulses, scraping down sides of bowl as needed.

Heat oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add onion-mushroom mixture, salt, and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until liquid has evaporated, 4 to 6 minutes. Spread mixture into even layer in bottom of saucepan and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until fond forms, 4 to 6 minutes.

Stir in garlic, tomato paste, 2 teaspoons oregano, and pepper flakes and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir in reserved tomato juice, scraping up any browned bits. Add ground meat and cook, breaking up meat with wooden spoon, until firm crumbles form, about 3 minutes.

Stir in crushed and diced tomatoes and bring to simmer, then reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until sauce has thickened and tomatoes have broken down, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in remaining 1 teaspoon oregano and season with salt and pepper to taste. (Sauce can be refrigerated for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 1 month.)