A Spaghetti Sauce Tradition

Chop all of the celery, including the leaves from the innermost section.

Slice the mushrooms into fairly thin slices about 1/8 of an inch wide. Chop the onion, bell pepper, Serrano pepper, and garlic into small pieces.

Put all of the chopped items in a bowl.

Add the olive oil to a large pot. Heat the oil on medium heat.

Add all of the chopped items to the pot and let cook for about 10 minutes. Stir about every 3 minutes.

In the bowl that the chopped items were in, add the cut tomatoes and squish them up a bit with your hands.

After the chopped items have cooked for about 10 minutes, add the cut tomatoes to the pot. Stir all of the ingredients.

Add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, and water to the pot.

Add the worcestershire sauce, parsley, oregano, basil, salt, and pepper to the pot. Stir all of the ingredients and allow them to simmer.

In a skillet, cook the ground meat on medium heat. Continue cooking until the meat is browned. Drain meat if necessary. Then add the meat to the sauce and stir. Add the bay leaves as well.

Stir and let simmer for at least 3 hours. Continue to stir every 30 minutes or so.

After simmering for 3 hours or more, the sauce will reduce, thicken, and the ingredients will blend together nicely.

Remove the bay leaves before serving.

Serve over any type of pasta.