Spaghetti Meat Sauce

This is the recipe my Mother and I have put together for basic meat sauce for spaghetti or lasagna. But what's spaghetti without the Garlic Bread

Ingredients:
2 lbs ground beef

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 green pepper, finely chopped

6 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon olive oil

2 12oz cans tomato paste

3 15oz cans tomato sauce

1 tablespoon  dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1/4 cup brown sugar, may need more to taste

1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds*

1 teaspoon dried basil

1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

2 bay leaves

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

*Wrap fennel seeds in fine mesh cheesecloth, and tie the top with cooking string so no seeds can escape. Set aside for later*

1. Cook ground beef until brown in a large sauce pan on medium heat, add in olive oil, onions and peppers; cook until onion is translucent. 

2. Next add tomato paste and reduce heat to med-low. Stir everything until well combined and toss in the garlic, cook until fragrant then add all the rest of the ingredients. Simmer on low for 1 hour stirring occasionally. Adjust seasonings to your liking, you may need more or less always taste your sauce throughout cooking, a little time can change the taste.

Freezing instructions: I try to always have spaghetti sauce in my freezer, just in case I do not feel like going all out for dinner. I just pour the cooled sauce into a freezer bag or a freezer container and I keep it up to 3 months in the freezer, defrost, heat it up and just add pasta!