Step 1. Put water on to boil for pasta. Clean and slice mushrooms. If using frozen tomato sauce, thaw it.

Step 2. Brown beef and sausage over medium heat (6-8 min). Break chunks of meat up as it cooks. When meat finishes cooking, remove from pan and drain off grease.

Step 3. Return pan to heat. Add 1 Tbsp olive oil or you can use a tablespoon of the grease left from cooking the meat. Sauté mushrooms until soft and cooked through (8-10 min).

Step 4. When mushrooms are done, add the meat and add tomato sauce to the pan with the mushrooms. Add salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat. Simmer for 15-20 min.

Step 5. While sauce simmers, cook pasta according to package directions. When pasta is done, drain. To serve, divide pasta between 4 bowls. Top with sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Mash together crumbled blue cheese in vinegar with a fork. There shouldn’t be any big chunks, but small chunks are fine. The original recipe called for Roquefort, but you can use any blue cheese. Using pre-crumbled saves a little time.

In a separate bowl or jar, mix together oil, salt, pepper, & Worcestershire sauce.  A 2-cup (1 pint) glass jar just fits.
Note: I use table salt for this dressing. If you use kosher salt, you may need to adjust the amount.

Combine blue cheese mixture in with oil mixture. Mix well – either whisk them together in a bowl or put them in a jar and shake it vigorously.

Store in refrigerator. Shake well or re-whisk before serving. The blue cheese tends to sink to the bottom of the jar, so sometimes I use a spoon or small gravy ladle to make sure I get the good stuff from the bottom of the jar.

#1. Really good bread. There was a time that I would have said good old Wonder bread, lightly toasted was the way to go. However, now there are so many other options. Ciabatta is great. However, like everyone else on the planet I started making homemade sourdough bread during the pandemic. I have to say, homemade sourdough lightly toasted makes for a great BLT.

#2. Really good bacon, fried up to be crispy. Don’t skimp. Use a really good thick cut bacon. My personal favorite is Pine Street Market’s bacon. So yummy. I’m lucky to have Pine Street as my local butcher. If you have a good local butcher, you should try theirs. If you don’t have a good local butcher don’t worry:  Pine Street Market ships.

#3. Crisp, cool lettuce. I have a trick for keeping lettuce crisp. I clean it in a salad spinner and then store it in the fridge in the salad spinner. Yes, this takes up a lot of room. However, it keeps the lettuce really crisp and the lettuce stays fresh longer.

#4. Homegrown tomato. If you do not have the luxury of a homegrown tomato, a locally grown farmers market tomato will work, too. If you want to kick it up a notch, use an heirloom variety. I’m partial to Cherokee Purple.

#5. Homemade Mayo. My grandfather would argue that this is the most important secret to a great BLT. Making mayonnaise may sound a bit harrowing, but do not fear. As Poppa always said, “if you have 15 seconds you can make homemade mayonnaise”. I’ve included my grandmother’s recipe below. However, consistent with the CDC’s recommendations, I use a pasteurized egg instead of a regular raw egg to reduce the risk of food-borne illness. Pasteurized eggs can be hard to find, but I find them consistently at Publix.