Thursday, October 15, 2009

Giving Up Jarred Pasta Sauce

This all began the other night when I was making dinner. I didn't really have a specific meal in mind and since I hadn't gone grocery shopping I was going to have to make due with what was already in my pantry/freezer. I had some shrimp and some pasta so I thought, all I need is some spaghetti sauce and I can make shrimp spaghetti. Sadly, I didn't have any of my usual Chunky Ragu sauce in the pantry. What I did have however was the perfect ingredients to make my own spaghetti sauce. I whipped my "homemade" sauce up in no time and after the first spoonful I decided that I was officially giving up store bought spaghetti sauce.

Tonight I made my own sauce again, this time using lean ground beef instead of shrimp and once again it was delicious! It was sooo easy, I really don't know why I wasn't doing this before. I know you are all extremely interested in knowing my recipe, so I will try to appease you. If you know me, you know I'm not the best at explaining how I make something unless I'm following an exact recipe.

Warning: this is not exact but just a rough guide to go by.

Ingredients:
Large Can of Hunt's Diced Tomatoes (I like the ones already seasoned with garlic, oregano, and basil)
~4 oz Tomato Paste
Italian Seasoning
Crushed Red Pepper

Instructions:
1. Mix the diced tomatoes with the tomato paste. Stir the tomato paste until it dissolves into the juice from the diced tomatoes. *I'd suggest that you add the tomato paste in slowly, you may need more or less.

2. Add seasoning to taste. I never measure my seasoning so I wouldn't even know where to begin as far as amounts are concerned.

3. Enjoy! Yep, it's that simple.

Notes:
-If you like your sauce more "juicy" then you may want to consider adding a little bit of tomato juice or using some crushed tomatoes.
-I'm thinking of trying out adding additional vegetables to the sauce. Maybe one of those bags of italian vegetables.

On another topic....my GoWear Fit came today (yeah I bought it) so be on the lookout for a post about that really soon.

2 comments:

Dena said...

Tastier and much healtier. There's sooooo much salt and suger and crap in most anything that comes in a jar.

The Running Bob said...

Oh, jarred sauce is only when extremely tired and in emergency sitations. You're on the right track with your own experimental sauces -- I've never met a sauce I haven't liked.