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| A great spaghetti sauce that gets a little help from canned sauce but tastes like you cooked it from scratch. |
Easy 'Homemade' Spaghetti Sauce
In the mood for spaghetti with a homemade taste, but that doesn't have to simmer all day long? Okay, so yes, you do get a little head start with canned spaghetti sauce to start with so I guess you can call this "semi-homemade," BUT... once you add in some very simple but transforming enhancements, you will end up with something that tastes as if you made the sauce from scratch and simmered it on the stove for hours. I've been making my spaghetti sauce like this for years, and The Cajun loves it!
True, there is nothing that can match a sauce that is made from fresh home grown or store bought in-season tomatoes and low simmered on the stove all day long, but what to do when tomatoes aren't in season? Or, if you don't have that kind of time?
Canned spaghetti pasta sauces are pretty cheap to use, and you can pretty much use just about any brand, however, that doesn't mean that you want to just dump the sauce in a pot, add the meatballs and serve it over spaghetti noodles! Just a little extra effort will make a
major difference, and if nobody's lookin' to see you pop open the cans, they'll think you slaved over a hot stove for hours. The secret, will be yours to keep.
If you don't have pre-made meatballs on hand, the recipe I use for basic meatballs is
right here. Just allow time for the preparation. In fact, double or even triple the batch, cook them and then lay them out on a baking sheet in the freezer. Once frozen you can transfer them to a large zipper freezer bag and then you'll have your own premade meatballs for another time!
But, to be honest, if you don't have pre-made meatballs, a meat sauce is equally good, super speedy, and for that, all you have to do is brown your ground beef up in the same pot you cooked the onion and garlic in. Then add whatever tomatoes and/or canned spaghetti sauce you are using and let it cook on a medium simmer for at least 30 minutes, or up to several hours on a low simmer if you have the time.
You can also start this sauce the night before, or the morning you want to make it for dinner, and then dump it in the crockpot and let it simmer on low all day (8 to 10 hours) in your crockpot while you're at work or running errands! When you get home, dump in the cooked meatballs and turn it to high for about 30 minutes, or until they are heated through. For meat sauce, this is especially fast if you have stored some pre-browned ground beef in your freezer. However you do this, it's a fast and delicious spaghetti that is both man-pleasin' and kid-pleasin' and tastes like it took much more effort than it really did.
I keep a wide variety of canned tomatoes as pantry staples all the time - tomato paste, sauce, diced tomatoes, Rotel, whole, pureed, fire roasted, and cheap, canned spaghetti sauce, all are common staples in my house. I often start my spaghetti sauce with a large can or two of cheap canned spaghetti sauce, rather than using only plain tomato sauce, because it's slightly sweetened and contains some seasoning, but I have used a combination of many different tomatoes as well, so mix it up! Here's what you need to totally transform a can (or jar) of off-the-shelf spaghetti sauce, and make it with your
own 'homemade.'
Here's the basic recipe. Grab some olive oil, 1 medium yellow onion, 3 cloves of garlic, 1/2 a teaspoon of Italian seasoning, 2 bay leafs, dash of red pepper flakes, 2 large cans of spaghetti sauce, 1 can stewed tomatoes, prepared meatballs OR 1 pound of ground beef and a package of thin spaghetti noodles.
Chop the onion.
And saute them in some olive oil in a large saucepan or pot. You'll be doing the whole sauce in this same pot.
Once the onion has cooked down soft, but not caramelized, add some chopped garlic. Cook that for about 3 or 4 minutes.
Gather the seasonings - 1/2 teaspoon of dried Italian seasoning, 1/2 teaspoon of Cajun seasoning, 2 bay leaves, and a couple dashes of red pepper flakes. If you have fresh herbs in your garden, absolutely use them here instead of using the dried seasoning.
Add the seasonings in with the onion and garlic.
And stir them in well, allowing the flavors to cook and meld together for a few minutes.
If you are making a meat sauce, this is where you will add in the raw ground beef and brown it before adding the tomatoes and sauce. If you're crocking it, once you brown the meat, transfer it to the crockpot and add everything in there. Otherwise, add in the can of stewed tomatoes, Rotel if you're using it, or whatever combination of tomatoes you have on hand. Feel free to experiment and mix up the tomatoes you use for your sauce, whatever you have - stewed, diced, whole, crushed, fire roasted,
your own recipe, and certainly any
from the garden you happened to have put up!
... and let them cook for about 5 minutes.
Now add in the spaghetti sauce, if you're using it. I have used Del Monte Traditional canned spaghetti sauce for years because the flavor is excellent, it's got a little sweetness and seasoning to it already, and it's cheap - but it's been difficult to find and may have been discontinued. Really any kind of sauce, canned, jarred, generic, whatever is on sale - it all works fine, just don't spend a lot of money because you are only using this as your base. Hunt's is another brand I use.
Stir it all in together, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 30 minutes to several hours, stirring a few times in between. If cooking this in a crockpot, I wait to add the cooked meatballs in right before I am ready to serve it, then crank it to high, cover it and let it cook for about another 30 minutes, just enough to thoroughly warm through the meatballs.
On the stovetop, when I am serving this with meatballs, I like to let the sauce simmer by itself first and then add in the cooked meatballs right before serving. Stir in the meatballs, return to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, for about 25 to 30 minutes, or according to the directions on your package of meatballs if you are using prepacked meatballs. If you're in a hurry, just add the meatballs right after you add the tomatoes, since the sauce really only has to simmer 30 minutes, about the same time the meatballs are heated through.
When the meatballs are just about ready, get a pot of water going for the pasta. Large pot, lots of water and salt the pot generously! This is where people make the biggest mistake when they cook pasta. They either way under season the water for the pasta or they don't season it at all! Believe me, it does make a difference. You need about 3 very generous pinches of kosher salt. Bring the water to a full rolling boil and add the salt. (If you add the salt first, the water will take longer to boil)
Now, I'm not very fond of the regular whole wheat pastas much - kinda depends on the brand really. But, I LOVE the
Barilla Plus pastas
. They really are good all on their own in any pasta dish.
And, sometimes I mix my pasta! I'll use half a package of the regular spaghetti noodles and half Barilla Plus. Then, what I like to do is snap the noodles in half while holding them over the pot. This way they still look like whole spaghetti noodles, but they are easier to manage with a twirl of the fork! Gotta twirl your pasta, right?
Cook the pasta according to the package directions for al dente, drain and return the noodles to the pasta pot. See, it looks like any regular old pasta now doesn't it? Trust me, you can pull this off with your family! Give it a shot and see what happens.
Put the noodles back into the pasta pot, pull about 3 scoops of the sauce out of the sauce pot.
And add that to the spaghetti noodles.
And mix it in well, so all the noodles are well coated.
Pour the noodles into a serving platter.
And top with the sauce and meatballs.
Recipe: Easy Homemade Spaghetti Sauce with Meatballs or Meat Sauce
©From the Kitchen of Deep South Dish
| Prep time: 10 min |Cook time: 1 hour | | Yield: About 6 to 8 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1/2 teaspoon of Italian seasoning
- 1/2 teaspoon of Cajun Seasoning (like Slap Ya Mama)
- 2 bay leaves
- Dash of red pepper flakes
- 2 large (26.5 ounce) cans of spaghetti sauce (recommend Del Monte or Hunts)
- 1 can (14.5 ounce) sliced stewed tomatoes
- 1 can (10 ounce) of Rotel tomatoes, optional
- 1 pound package of fully cooked meatballs, homemade meatballs, or 1 pound of ground beef for meat sauce
- 1 pound package of thin spaghetti noodles
- 3 large pinches of kosher salt for the pasta water
Instructions
Heat the oil over medium heat in a large saucepan or a small stockpot. Add the onion and cook until softened. Add the garlic and continue cooking for about 3 or 4 minutes. Add the Italian seasoning, Cajun seasoning, 2 bay leaves, and a couple dashes of red pepper flakes, stir in and cook for about 2 minutes. If you are making a meat sauce instead of using meatballs, add the ground beef here and cook until browned.
Add the stewed and Rotel tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes. Add the 2 cans of spaghetti sauce, bring to a boil, reduce to a medium simmer and cook covered for 30 minutes. Add the meatballs, stir to mix in well, cover and cook an additional 25 minutes, or per the package instructions. If doing meat sauce, you can finish the sauce with the first 30 minute simmer. If you are short on time, go ahead and add the meatballs right away, and they should be finished with that first 30 minute simmer. The sauce can go as short as 30 minutes with any method, or for several hours on a very low simmer, if you have the time.
Place water for pasta in a tall stockpot, cover and bring to a boil, and season very generously with 3 generous pinches of kosher salt. Cook the pasta according to the package direction for al dente, drain and return to the pasta pot. Scoop out some of the spaghetti sauce and add it to the spaghetti noodles. Stir until pasta is well coated. Transfer spaghetti noodles to a platter and top with the sauce and meatballs.
~Cook's Notes~
Note: I like Del Monte canned sauce, however it has been difficult to find and may have been discontinued. Hunt's is another brand I use. While I usually start with a canned spaghetti sauce, I certainly do and have used a mixture of stewed, diced, whole, fire roasted, my own Creole tomato recipe made from my garden harvest, and certainly any nice tomatoes you happened to have put up will do. Feel free to experiment and mix up the tomatoes you use for your sauce.
For the Crockpot: If making meat sauce, brown the meat, then add all of the ingredients to the crockpot. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. For meatballs, I recommend waiting to add the cooked meatballs in until about 30 minutes before you plan to serve dinner. Turn the crockpot up to high and continue cooking for about 30 minutes or until meatballs are thoroughly warmed through.
Click here for my basic homemade meatball recipe.
Source: http://www.deepsouthdish.com
©Deep South Dish
Leftover Meatballs
The leftover meatballs from this sauce make a fantastic meatball sub sandwich! Warm the meatballs in the microwave, just enough to take the chill off. Preheat the broiler. Get a good French roll or sub roll, open it up, cut a few meatballs in half and lay them on the roll. Be generous! Spoon a little sauce on top of the meatballs. Cover with sliced mozzarella cheese and place under the broiler just long enough to toast bread and melt the cheese. For a softer roll, warm the meatballs in the microwave and prepare as above except wrap tightly in aluminum foil. Place into a preheated 350 degree oven for 20 to 30 minutes or until warmed completely through. Save some leftover sauce and meatballs, pair it up with some Buitoni pasta and make
this delicious dish that'll impress your guests.
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.
Mmmm, Southern Cooking is like a long walk in the meadow, you just can never seem to fill up enough on it. ~Paula Deen
Then, flip them over to the top side and you'll see an extra flap of meat. That is generally pretty tough and inedible meat to me, so I always remove it.
Lift it and gradually work the knife underneath and slice it off.
Until you have a clean rack of ribs that is ready to season!
We are going to use steak seasoning. No, you did not read that wrong! Lisa used Tone's Canadian Steak Seasoning
, but I have this Weber Chicago steak seasoning, which works perfectly fine. I suppose you could use whatever kind of seasoning that you want really, but Lisa used steak seasoning, so I use steak seasoning.
And of course, a little bit of my standby Certified Cajun seasoning.
Sprinkle both generously all over the ribs on both sides.
Lay the ribs on a foil lined baking sheet (just for easier clean up) and tightly wrap the pan with about 4 layers of foil so no steam escapes. Bake at 250 degrees for about 3 hours for a single rack of ribs, 3-1/2 to 4 hours for two racks, shifting the pans around about halfway through. When the ribs pull away from the bone like this, they are pretty much done, but we're gonna do the big finish on the grill.
As you see, these cooked ribs without the dry rub are much more pale than the ones that are open roasted and have the dry rub on them, but we're gonna resolve that here in a sec. Right now, you'll want to generously slather the ribs on both sides with some homemade sauce, or your favorite bottled sauce...
...and sear them on both sides in a preheated and very hot grill. Again, remember, when you go to transfer the ribs from the pan to the grill, use a pair of long handled grill tongs to slide up underneath the ribs, gently grasp them and just kind of pull them off of the pan onto the grill. Otherwise, these are going to be tender enough that they may fall apart on you, especially if you are grilling the baby backs.
Thankfully the storms have moved out of here (finally) and the sun is shining again! Things were rockin' and rollin' around here (again) at about 3:30 a.m. and woke me (again) so after three nights of this, I am one exhausted gal I'm tellin' y'all. My heart and prayers go out to those who have endured damage and loss in these recent storms, those in the path of the last one still, and for all who are dealing with the flooding along the Red River.
for Christmas, which replaced a very cheapo simple no frills (and not very good) rice cooker I had before.
...and then stack the eggs in the nice little indentations provided in the insert that makes them stand upright. Isn't that just adorable? (I am so easily entertained these days...)
Close the lid, set it to steam, set the electronic timer, start it and in 23 minutes you have perfectly steamed hard cooked eggs! I still finish them off the same way, in a water bath with a bunch of ice cubes, but look how fantastic they turn out! No green around the edges - great to use for a tuna salad or shrimp salad, yes, but perfect when you're making deviled eggs.
The Accidental Gardener
