When one of my friends saw the canned spaghetti sauce on my food pantry list, she shared her dismay that I was going to have to cook with it. I told her I was excited about "saving" the canned sauce and making it taste homemade. I love making homemade sauce, cooking down the tomatoes and letting the flavors simmer and blend together, filling the house with that beautiful aroma. But, the reality is that in our busy lives that's not always practical, so I learned a long time ago to doctor up a sauce from the store and make it taste homemade. Granted, I don't usually start with two cans of Hill Country Fare canned spaghetti sauce.
The first thing I needed to do was figure out what I was working with. I tasted the sauce and it was sweet and bland, about one step above ketchup. I had some work to do.
I grabbed the bulk Italian sausage I bought at the store, minced 3 cloves of garlic and clipped some basil and oregano from my patio garden. While I was browning the sausage in a skillet, I added the spaghetti sauce, minced garlic and chopped herbs to a pot and brought it to a simmer to blend the flavors.
When the sausage was done, I drained it, separating the meat from the grease, and added it to the sauce. I let it simmer a few more minutes and then tasted it. Still to sweet.
I needed to add some heat to cut the sweetness. Normally, I would use red pepper flakes, but I was out, so I added about 1/2 tsp of cayenne - just enough to cut the sweetness, but not enough to make the sauce spicy. I let the flavors cook down a few more minutes and tasted one more time. Perfect!
The beauty of saving the sauce is that you can use whatever you have on hand. I normally would add onion, but I didn't have one so I used a little extra garlic. Have a bell pepper or mushrooms on hand? Great, add them to the mix. Don't have fresh herbs? That's ok, use dried oregano or an Italian spice mix. Have hamburger instead of sausage? Perfect.
I was grateful for the herbs I grow on my patio. Even if you don't have much room, you can easily grow rosemary, basil, oregano and mint so that you have fresh herbs when you need them. It is much cheaper than buying fresh or dried herbs at the store and they look pretty on your patio.
For my dinner, I made a standard spaghetti, boiling part of the noodles that would have come in the pantry box and serving with a salad. If making the same old spaghetti is getting old, you can mix things up by making a baked spaghetti. It adds a different twist to a family standard and keeps everyone from getting bored with dinner.
Cost of the meal (assuming baked spaghetti).
$ 2.40 1 lb Italian bulk sausage
$ .88 1 lb spaghetti
$ 1.84 2 cans spaghetti sauce
$ .15 3 garlic cloves
$ 2.32 1 cup grated mozzarella
$ .80 1 serving of mixed lettuce
$ .67 1/3 radishes from bunch
$ 9.06 Total
Baked Spaghetti
4 servings
For the sauce:
1 lb bulk Italian sausage
2 cans or jars spaghetti sauce (feel free to substitute with homemade)
3 cloves minced garlic
1 tbsp oregano
2 tbsps basil
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes
1 lb spaghetti or other pasta
1 cup grated Mozzarella cheese
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a skillet, brown the sausage. Drain the grease from the meat.
In a large pot, combine the spaghetti sauce, garlic, oregano and basil and bring to a simmer. Add the meat to the pot and bring back to a simmer. Taste the sauce and add cayenne or pepper as necessary to cut the sweetness of the sauce. Adjust other spices as necessary.
While the sauce is cooking, bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the noodles until they are just tender. Drain the noodles.
Combine the sauce and the noodles. Pour the mixture into a large baking pan and top with the cheese. Cook the spaghetti for 30 minutes and cheese is bubbling.
