Basic Spaghetti Sauce

Hey everyone, I hope you're having a splendid week. Yay for Friday! I wanted to post a super easy recipe that I use almost weekly for a variety of dishes: basic spaghetti sauce. I use the smell test for this (smell test = smell spices and add whatever smells like it would taste good in the recipe) and have come up with what I think is a good combination of ingredients :).

Start with a can of tomato sauce... I always use Hunt's brand. You can use a small can or large, depending on what kind of pasta you're making the sauce for. It's all up to you! Let it warm up a bit, but don't put it on high heat or you'll have sauce splattering everywhere :).

While it's in a pot on the stove, I add the following spices:
*Minced Garlic (1/2 tsp?)
*Oregano (1 tsp)
*Parsley (1 tsp)
*dash of salt & pepper
*Grated Parmesan cheese (Kraft or whatever brand is fine) - I eventually add probably about 1/8-1/4 c.

Add the spices and stir... I sprinkle a little of the Parmesan cheese into the mix until I get a taste I like. I like my sauce to be a little cheesy :).

So basically, here's what I do for meat spaghetti:
Brown the beef and drain.
Add tomato sauce.
Add spices and stir, taste.
Add more spices/cheese, stir, taste.
Add more cheese, stir, taste.
Add more cheese, stir, taste.

This continues until I think it's yummy enough to serve :). This sauce goes great with spaghetti noodles, angel hair noodles (our favorite), and tortellini (another favorite).

If you want to try the tortellini, I highly suggest this recipe:
Dice up raw skinless & boneless chicken breasts. Put olive oil in a pan, add chicken and cook until you can cut a piece easily with the turner/spatula. Then, you can either make the sauce (basic sauce recipe above) in the same pan as the chicken or make it in a separate pot and dump it in with the chicken when you're done.

In a separate pot, boil about 4-6 cups of water and add the tortellini. Our favorite brand is Buitoni and we usually get the "three cheese" kind. Put the tortellini in the water and boil for about 10 minutes, or until it's soft enough to eat. Combine the chicken, sauce, and pasta together in a bowl and serve! This is also yummy with some sweet corn added :).

Anyway, that's about it for the sauce :). I posted 3 recipes in the same post!!! Good luck and please let me know if you try any of them :). Have a great weekend!