Tag Archives: Spaghetti

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Our Adventures in Cooking ~ Semi-Homemade Pasta Sauce

We’re great fans of pasta and spaghetti in particular, and the other day my wife made a batch of semi-homemade pasta sauce which is our favorite ‘pasta-everything’ (Chicken Parmesan, Spaghetti, Lasagna, Stuffed Pasta Shells, etc.) sauce! 🙂 It’s easier to start with a ready-made spaghetti sauce, and our favorite base sauce to use is Ragu’s Tomato, Garlic & Onion sauce.

Empty your jars and cans of tomato and spaghetti sauce into a large bowl, using any tomato-based products you have on hand in your pantry, like the Hunt’s Crushed Tomatoes we used.  Begin with sauteing chopped onions and pressed garlic cloves in olive oil, followed by sauteing freshly sliced button mushrooms, and then stir everything into the bowl of tomato sauce.  Next, fry a portion of lean ground beef or turkey in the same saucepan, and add it to the bowl of tomato sauce as well.  Add freshly chopped basil and parsley to the pasta sauce, and season to taste with salt, pepper, oregano and Italian seasoning.

The advantage of making a large batch of pasta sauce, is the ability to freeze it in separate containers for warming up later.  This batch of semi-homemade pasta sauce yielded eight portions (for two) for freezing, along with a generous amount stored in the refrigerator for the coming days.  We top our spaghetti servings with Kraft 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese ~ enjoy! ☼ 🙂

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One of Our Favorite Budget Meals ~ Simple Spaghetti

When time is of the essence, and it’s not possible to cook homemade spaghetti sauce from scratch as we often do, try this simple spaghetti recipe that we love!  For decades we used to cook spaghetti noodles in the traditional way in a large pot of boiling water while steaming up the kitchen, but these days we find that a microwave container made especially for cooking spaghetti to be the best and fastest method – without all the steam.

While the spaghetti is cooking in the microwave, open a can of ‘Hunt’s 100% Natural, Diced, Basil, Garlic & Oregano Tomatoes’ and pour it into a microwave container, adding salt, pepper, garlic salt, oregano and/or Italian seasoning to taste.  We find that Hunt’s diced tomatoes provide the best taste and texture for our simple spaghetti.  Once the spaghetti is finished cooking in the microwave, drain it while warming up the diced tomatoes in the microwave.

Portion the spaghetti noodles into individual bowls, and top with the hot diced tomatoes.  Sprinkle shredded mozzarella cheese over each individual serving, and pop back into the microwave to melt the cheese, and serve hot ~ that’s all there is to a quick and delicious serving of simple spaghetti ~ enjoy! ☼ 🙂

Simple Spaghetti

Simple Spaghetti