When I was a teenager, my parents took a trip to Italy, and when they got home, my spaghetti life was changed forever.  My Dad, who cooked dinner most nights in our family, came home proclaiming that the spaghetti we had been eating our whole lives was crap, and that the Italians did it better.  (Big surprise, I know) He immediately started making spaghetti this way, and now, it’s the only spaghetti.

I mean it. Make it this way once and it will be your only spaghetti too.

This is a very simple, humble, delicious meal.  It can be paleo or whole 30 compliant quite easily, if you can find super sweet tomatoes, you can leave out the sugar.  I serve this over spaghetti noodles for my kids, and zoodles for me.  It is *really* good with zoodles.

Very few ingredients in this sauce.  Some sweet yellow onions, garlic, a can of good quality (the sweeter the better) crushed tomatoes, some wine, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, and some fresh basil.  Simmered down into a rich sauce, it is absolute perfection.

The real star of this dish is the crispy pork.  It’s very simple, and you can replace it with ground beef or ground turkey, but it won’t be the same.  All you do is brown some ground pork up super crispy with a little garlic powder, salt, and pepper, and place it on top of your noodles (or zoodles)  and top with a little parmesan.

Best comfort food ever.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup of olive oil (seems like a lot but you need it)
1 large sweet yellow onion, diced
3 cloves minced garlic
1 28oz can of crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup red wine (I usually use a cabernet, because that’s what we drink)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
sugar to taste* depending on the sweetness of your tomatoes you may not need this
1 cup of julienned fresh basil leaves

1 lb ground pork
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
pinch of black pepper

Spaghetti noodles or zoodles
parmesan cheese for garnish

Directions:
Place your olive oil in a large pan over medium low heat.  Add your diced onion and garlic and simmer until translucent.  Add the tomatoes, wine, salt, and italian seasoning.  Simmer for about 30 minutes over low heat, stirring occasionally.  Taste it and adjust seasoning as needed.  This is where you might add a bit of sugar.

Meanwhile, place your ground pork in a separate frying pan with seasonings.  Brown until quite crispy and set aside.

Just before serving, add the fresh basil to your sauce and cook on low about five more minutes.

Prepare your noodles or zoodles.  (I have this zoodle maker– love it) and I just sautee them for about two minutes in some olive oil.

Place noodles or zoodles on bottom of plate.  Top with marinara next, then the pork, then the parmesan.  Enjoy.