I have been trying for YEARS to come up with a recipe for spaghetti sauce that tastes like the kind I get in Italian restaurants. I have looked online, in cookbooks, watched Food Network, and have not found one that has just the right balance of flavors and consistency.
I’m about ready to beg the owner of a local Italian restaurant for his recipe! I honestly can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong. I have tried everything short of processing the tomatoes into sauce by hand. I want the sauce to be rich and thick, have a good herb flavor with a hint of garlic, and not have huge tomato chunks in it. Is that so much to ask?
It doesn’t help that my husband’s favorite spaghetti sauce comes from a recipe I found in Frozen Assets. It calls for two large cans of prepared sauce (I use Hunt’s Traditional) and two cans of stewed tomatoes-YUCK! My favorite sauce comes from the recipe for Italian Sausage Lasagna found in the classic Betty Crocker recipe book. It’s just crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, a little onion, and fresh parsley. Chris thinks it’s too “bland”. So last night I tried to compromise and put the two recipes together. It looked like this:
Step One: Crumble a roll of Bob Evans Italian Sausage into a large saucepan, cook over medium heat stirring often and chopping it up into small pieces. (I forgot to take a photo of this part)
Step Two: Add one can of crushed tomatoes in puree, one can of Hunt’s Traditional spaghetti sauce, and one can of petite diced tomatoes flavored with green pepper, celery and onion.
Stir to combine, raise the heat until it bubbles (careful of the splattering, hold the saucepan lid over the pan), then turn it down to low and let it simmer very gently until it is heated through. The longer it sits, the better. Here’s what it looks like served over a pasta shape called Pipette. Each two pieces fit together to make a donut shape, it seemed like a good size to feed a toddler. Kaitlyn ate this right up!
So, your assignment is to tell me in the comments how you make your spaghetti sauce. Leave me a link to a recipe you’ve posted, or to a website, or just spell it out for me. I want it to taste just like what is served in restaurants. Someone must have the right recipe!
I cheat.. lol. I use Prego Spaghetti sauce after I’ve browned hamburger, onions and garlic. I also throw in some grated Parmesan/Romano cheese. I let it simmer well and add some cheese on top. Hubby loves my sauce.
If you want the recipe of my old Italian grandma i will give it to you but please email me. don’t want it plastered all over the net lol
I never make my sauce the same way twice. But here is a base:
Italian Sausage (sometimes sweet, sometime spicy)
Canned tomato sauce (sometime chunky, sometimes not)
onions (sometimes diced, sometimes bigger)
garlic
mushrooms (optional)
Italian seasonings blend (dried)
Oregano
Chili pepper flakes (optional)
Salt and pepper
some type of pasta
Brown the sausage and then remove from pan and drain; in same pan saute the onion until translucent then add in garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add in mushrooms and saute for another 2 minutes then add back in sausage. Add 2 tbsp Italian season blend and 1 tbs oregano and salt and pepper. You can add in the chili peper flakes at this point if you want. Cook 2 minutes then add in tomato sauce and mix well. Taste to see if too tomatoey. If so, add in more Italian seasoning and oregano to taste. If bitter, add 1 tsp of sugar to balance out. Let it simmer together for at least 30 minutes – but the longer it simmers, the better the flavors. If it gets too thick, I add in chicken stock to thin out and to give it even more flavor, but water works just as well.
We like it spicy versus tomatoey so I tend to add more Italian Seasoning blend/oregano to taste as I let it simmer. Serve it over any pasta.
MMMM that sounds good – I shall have to give it a try!
My idea of making spaghetti sauce is to open a jar of Prego or Ragu and throw it into a pan. I did have one I did from scratch that tasted pretty good, but of course, I do know know what I did with it.
I start off with a little bit of olive oil in the pot and saute finely chopped onions and garlic… then add a couple of sausages and lightly brown them. Add tutorossa crushed tomatoes and tomato paste… usually about two cans to one can of paste… salt, pepper, a dash of sugar, garlic powder, onion powder grated parm and italian seasoning.. then i add my meatballs (groundbeef, grated onion, breadcrumbs, salt pepper garlic powder and eggs – 1 egg per pound then 1 extra…) directly to the sauce (i do not cook them first i let them cook in the sauce).. add them to the sauce… that that simmer for a few hours… the meatballs are so tender from being cooked in the sauce.. and the sauce is flavored from the meat.. If I use sweet italian sausage I add a dash of red pepper flakes, if i use hot italian sausage I usually omit the flakes.. that’s my recipe! Enjoy!
@ Lisa – I suppose it’s a matter of how much time you have on your hands too. Making up the sauce from scratch is fast and sometimes you just don’t want to take the time to do it – espacially at home. Of course, I don’t think I have ever tasted a fast recipe that could match the taste of a “from scratch” recipe. :(
This sure beats the hell out of hunts! Thank you so much :)
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I also want to imitate the spaghetti sauce that my favorite restaurant has, but every time try I got stuck with my schedule and just resort for can tomato sauce. I feel guilty and disappointed when I fail to use fresh tomatoes just like the recipe of the restaurant. Anyways, I just look at the brighter side, no one ever complaint of my spaghetti sauce.
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