STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

cahabo · Kate Spade

Ground beef or Sausage?

HeatherLynn · Gucci

I eat mine vegetarian, but most people I know fix it with ground beef.

FashionPrincess · Hermes

Ground beef.

Kelly · Hermes

I like it much better with ground beef. Although I wouldn't say sausage is unheard of, most people I know use ground beef most of the time.

member · Hermes

I eat mine vegetarian, but I always make it for SO w/ground beef. I also grew up w/my mom making it w/ground beef.

tri_sarah_tops · Marc Jacobs

Beef

pollyjean23 · Marc Jacobs

I grew up with ground beef in my spaghetti. My Italian grandmother would make hers with spare ribs to add extra flavor. I think she did beef too sometimes. Popularity-wise, in America, I would guess that beef would be used more. If we had sausage, it would be snake-shaped (for lack of better term)-- not ground. I think my grandmother would get the best sausage she could; so grinding it would be a shame.

needsfashionadvice · Kate Spade

I grew up with beef in the sauce but I like italian sausage better. I like to put turkey italian sausage in mine now when I make it.

AllieGurl · Marc Jacobs

we grew up with ground beef. The only person I knew who used sausage was a friend who's parents were both from italy ...

Lilykind · Hermes

um, whatever was in the house (sadly, i know from experience that hot dogs taste disgusting with spaghetti...). however, ground beef/turkey was the most common.

littlebean · Kate Spade

HeatherLynn wrote:

I eat mine vegetarian, but most people I know fix it with ground beef.

I agree.

Bastet · Kate Spade

I grew up with my mom making spaghetti with meatballs and Italian sausage. She used ground beef for the meatballs. If I could get her to give me her recipe, I would do it that way too because I really liked it!

When DH and I do it, we use my MIL's meatballs, which are a combination of veal, beef, and pork. We don't cook sausage with it because the meatballs are made of three meats and adding sausage would be meat overkill.

Drew · Gucci

My mom, 100% Italian, uses ground beef in her recipe. My dad, Scottish/English heritage, uses Italian sausage. I have never told my mom this, but my dad's recipe is far superior to hers. I definately think the sausage has a lot to do with that... so I vote to use Italian sausage for the most complex flavor.

avalon21 · BCBG

Beef!

ILoveChoo · Hermes

the only meat we have w/ spaghetti is in the form of a meatball or a sausage link...nothing in the sauce. I've always considered the "standard" to be meatless for some reason.

NCshopper · Hermes

Whatever we have on hand, which is usually sausage. Because of all the spices, I think it adds more flavor.

wicked · Coach

I don't do meat now, but growing up my parents always used Italian sausage.

boobaby · Kate Spade

Lilykind wrote:

um, whatever was in the house (sadly, i know from experience that hot dogs taste disgusting with spaghetti...). however, ground beef/turkey was the most common.

Sadly, I know that Kraft American Cheese slices baked on top of day old spaghetti isn't all that great, either.

I have been a vegetarian officially for 18 years. I have occassionally used those fake meatballs just for some variety but I prefer my pasta meat or fake meat free. I think my mom used ground beef for meatballs but never in the sauce.

jettie · Kate Spade

My mom never used beef in the sauce and rarely made meatballs. She did cut up Italian sausage and put it in the sauce though. I was never into it. I rarelly eat pasta but when I do, I have it without meat.

Suasoria · Chanel

My mom is Italian, and comes from a long line of awesome Italian cooks, so may I say, everyone is right!!

Italian regional foods are pretty distinctive (the country wasn't really unified until fairly late in the game, politically or otherwise), so there are huge variations from one area to another.

For example: most people think olive oil is standard, but in the north they used butter. There were no olive trees, but they had plenty of cows!

North of Rome, there aren't too many tomato sauces because the climate isn't ideal for growing tomatoes.

Some areas use a lot of pork, some beef. South of Naples, they traditionlly used very little meat of any kind.

Even cheese is different - Parmigiana/Parmesan is from Parma, but Romano is from Rome. And so on.

Some areas don't use much onion. Some areas start everything with oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes. Some areas aren't into herbs much, while some use a lot. So regarding the family argument, you can just say "it's a regional thing." Even the term "spaghetti sauce" makes little sense to an Italian. It's like how the Eskimos have eleven words for snow...checca, bolognese/ragu, arrabiata, puttanesca, marinara, pomodoro, pizzaiola...and those are just some tomato-based sauces!