Pasta Sauce, recipes and recommendations for store bought sauce

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Weedygarden

Weedygarden

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I wonder how many of you make your own pasta sauce? Would you be willing to share your recipes?

Pasta is one of the things that is recommended for food storage, and we need sauce to go with it, tomato sauce or creamy Alfredo sauce. Do you make it and can it? Do you make it the day you serve it? Do you purchase premade sauce?

I haven't been eating much pasta in a few years, except in my summer pasta salad that I make about once a summer. Recently I made a recipe from Taste of Home for Oven baked spaghetti for a church event. For the recipe, I purchased some sauce. Then the recipe turned out so good, I decided to make it again for another church event. The first time I made the recipe, it was so much better than the second time. I used a different sauce, because I didn't even think about how different it would be with a different sauce.
I looked for recommendations of sauces and which ones are rated the best. OMG, you can pay $12 for a jar of sauce to get the "best" or "better" sauce. Not me, but I thought I might like to do a taste test, or to get some input on which ones you prefer to purchase, or your recipes to make and can some.

Also, any good recipes to use the sauce with? I'll post the baked spaghetti recipe later. It has gotten so many good responses by people who have eaten it.
 
I drain 1 can of diced tomatoes and peppers (Save that yummy sauce!)
one can of mushroom chunks, 1/2 tablespoon of "Italian herbs" and a tiny bit of sea salt.
I add a jar of Ragu garden mix and add 1 Lb of scrambled ground beef, and enough garlic puree to cover the
tip of a knife and simmer for half an hour, stirring every few moments.

Try it over rice!!!:heart:
 
Does anyone like AlFredo?

in a pot of boiling water, dissolve 5 American cheese slices per person, 1/8 tablespoon of garlic powder
1/4 tablespoons of black pepper, 2 tablespoons of "Italian herbs" per quart, the tops of 4 green onions chopped fine,
and stir in 1/4 can of cream per serving. remove from heat after stirring and let sit uncovered for 10 minutes.
Pour it over chicken pasta or serve thick as a fondu dip for chicken fingers.

Oh yeah. the chicken:
1 can of chicken breast drained.

In a rounded skillet or wok put 1/8th. cup of olive oil and heat until its boiling, remove from heat, and add 1/2 a tablespoon each:
Italian seasonings
Garlic powder.
Black powder pepper or crushed peppercorns.
White powder peppercorns, fine ground.
Red pepper powder.
Sea salt.
Add to the hot oil and stir well and return to boil. dump the can(s?) of chicken and stir fry browned, transfer undrained to your AlFredo sauce.
 
Technically, it's a kind of goulash made for rice, buckwheat corns, or egg noodles, but I could see it on Spaghetti.
cube one pound of Polish sausage or a pound of little smokies, add 1 pound of hamburger, a can of mushrooms, 1/2 a cup of black olives (diced) 1/2 a cup of onion, a tiny bit of garlic, and simmer done, add to a quart of Ragu garden and 1 can of diced tomatoes and pepper. simmer until it thickens enough to suit you and ladle over your pasta or rice.
 
Magus said:
Does anyone like AlFredo?

in a pot of boiling water, dissolve 5 American cheese slices per person, 1/8 tablespoon of garlic powder
1/4 tablespoons of black pepper, 2 tablespoons of "Italian herbs" per quart, the tops of 4 green onions chopped fine,
and stir in 1/4 can of cream per serving. remove from heat after stirring and let sit uncovered for 10 minutes.
Pour it over chicken pasta or serve thick as a fondu dip for chicken fingers.

Oh yeah. the chicken:
1 can of chicken breast drained.

In a rounded skillet or wok put 1/8th. cup of olive oil and heat until its boiling, remove from heat, and add 1/2 a tablespoon each:
Italian seasonings
Garlic powder.
Black powder pepper or crushed peppercorns.
White powder peppercorns, fine ground.
Red pepper powder.
Sea salt.
Add to the hot oil and stir well and return to boil. dump the can(s?) of chicken and stir fry browned, transfer undrained to your AlFredo sauce.
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I do love Alfredo sauce! Thank you for the recipe. It is one of the things that I have tried to store the ingredients for.
 
Magus said:
Technically, it's a kind of goulash made for rice, buckwheat corns, or egg noodles, but I could see it on Spaghetti.
cube one pound of Polish sausage or a pound of little smokies, add 1 pound of hamburger, a can of mushrooms, 1/2 a cup of black olives (diced) 1/2 a cup of onion, a tiny bit of garlic, and simmer done, add to a quart of Ragu garden and 1 can of diced tomatoes and pepper. simmer until it thickens enough to suit you and ladle over your pasta or rice.
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Goulash is a common dish in the Plains states, or it was when I was growing up. It was fairly simple, and was a dinner regular. Ours growing up was made with crumbled hamburger meat and onion fried up, then some sort of tomato sauce or something tomato. It was one of those things that you used what you had. Tomato sauce or paste works, but so do canned tomatoes. Add about a pound of macaroni and enough water to barely cover the macaroni. Cover and cook until the macaroni is cooked. Salt and pepper to taste. When we had it, that was all the seasoning that was used, but now, I would dress it up, with garlic powder and maybe some other spices.
 
Make my own as we want it. It’s one of those quick things to make: brown and crumble Italian sausage, add garlic and onion, marjoram, oregano, and basil, then diced tomatoes and tomato sauce. We use spaghetti squash instead of pasta 🍝
As far as brands I don’t know of any good ones for spaghetti sauce, but the classico tomato pesto and fire roasted garlic pizza sauce are both good. Also make alfredo at home. Haven’t found a good store bought.
 
Weedygarden said:
I do love Alfredo sauce! Thank you for the recipe. It is one of the things that I have tried to store the ingredients for.
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Mine has a bit more bite than the canned goop. ;)
 
Try this:
1 can of this and a drained can of that. triple your salsa for under a buck! add minced onion or extra pepper.
you can stand a spoon up in this!
salza.png
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Slightly OT, but ever have hillbilly pizza? a split pone of cornbread covered in the above or stewed tomatoes n peppers, a cup of drained deer meat, mushrooms, onions, and goat cheese.
 
Fry 1 lb lean hamburger and set aside.
Sweat lots of onions and peppers, add a boatload of garlic
Add hamburger back in
Add 1-2 cans tomatoe paste
Add tomatoe sauce to thin it out
Add red wine and fresh mushrooms
Depending on your taste buds, a dab of brown sugar if it's too tart, for lack of a better word. Cook down until it is thick.

Salad and garlic toast, same as Weedygarden.
 
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I made creamy garlic sauce for my spaghetti squash. melt cheese in water, add cream and Italian herbs and onion.
Would NOT make bad nacho dip!
 
I went through the article and pulled out the names of the rated brands. There is much more information about each brand if you are interested in reading more about them. Within one brand, the type of sauce I bought recently made a big difference in flavor.

Add pasta and Parmesan cheese, and you can have that as a prepper meal. I really prefer some burger or Italian sausage in my sauce as well.

I'm also looking for recipes to make from tomato powder, which I think is an excellent food storage item to have. I saw somewhere that the shelf life of pasta can be about 12 years, which is a decent amount of time for food storage.

https://www.tastingtable.com/821292/pasta-sauce-brands-ranked-worst-to-best/
If you're making a quick, painless, and delicious pasta dish at home, your first step is to pick the type of pasta you're going to eat. The second step, though, is the most important one. That's when you pick the brand of pasta sauce to use. If you pick the proper brand, you're destined for a scrumptious meal that didn't necessitate a lot of effort to make.

While Italians are known for their mastery of pasta, it can be argued that Americans adore it just as much. Each year in the United States, nearly 6 billion pounds of pasta is gobbled up. Covering a lot of that pasta is store-bought pasta sauce.

Although there are a lot of tasty pasta sauce brands, there are also a few duds. To help you separate the yummy brands from the brands that should be skipped, we've listed pasta sauce brands in order from worst to best. While not every possible option available in America is in this ranking, we've made sure to include all the most popular pasta sauce brands.

12. Barilla
11. Ragu
10. Bertolli
9. Prego
8. Cucina Antica
7. Newman's Own
6. Classico
5. Trader Joe's
4. Whole Foods 365
3. The Meatball Shop
2. Victoria
1. Rao's Homemade
 
Weedygarden said:
While this thread is about pasta sauce, pasta has many varieties and uses. I used to make a seafood pasta salad using ring pasta, which I am not seeing on this guide. For storage, I try to keep the thinnest spaghetti I can find, vermicelli.View attachment 111041
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I use Ditalini in salads. It's a very small pasta that holds up well in mayo and dressings.
 
Pearl said:
Sometimes the bigger pastas get icky in salads. Too big and overwhelming!
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I will never forget one of the first pasta salads I had, but really, it wasn't one, there were three of the same. They were made with multi colored corkscrew type pastas, Fusilli, and they were just gross. I was stuck with a student whose parents were very late to pick him up, and I was way late to a potluck staff lunch because of it. It was 3 of the same pasta salads and tortilla chips. I should have gone out and gotten food. Or had the parent bring me some because of it.
I normally use macaroni in my pasta salads, and that might seem boring, but it is one of my main pasta's in my food storage, besides the vermicelli. I don't care for the bow tie pasta in salads, but that seems to be a commonly used pasta in salads.
 
Since we're on the subject of sauces, how about a pasta recipe?
3 cups of Barilla rainbow rotini, drained and rinsed.
2 cups of well-cooked pinto beans OR refried beans.
1 cup of Italian dressing.
1 package of onion soup mix.
1 1/2 cups of white vinegar.
Mix thoroughly and let sit overnight. stir and serve.
 
Here's a new one I'm testing right now on the stove!
In Olive oil, simmer 1/4 cup of onion, finely diced,
1 Jalapeno pepper, also diced.
1 cup-sized can of mushrooms.
1 can of small-sized tomato sauce.
Continue to simmer and add two cans of Mackerel and baste it well so everything gets covered. Serve on a Dave's Everything bagel!

Probably go good on pasta too, that's my next test! mac n cheese will be the side dish so we'll be close!
 
This is a recipe I have been making lately when I take food for others. It is well received. From the reviews, use half again as much sauce, or even twice as much, otherwise it is dry. I've made it and freeze the leftovers in meal sized containers.

https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/favorite-baked-spaghetti/

Favorite Baked Spaghetti​

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Total Time
Prep: 25 min. Bake: 1 hour + standing
Makes-Icon.png
Makes 10 servings

Ingredients​

  • 1 package (16 ounces) spaghetti
  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 1 jar (24 ounces) pasta sauce
  • 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • 5 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 2 cups 4% cottage cheese
  • 4 cups shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
  • Chopped fresh basil, optional

Directions​

  • 1. Preheat oven to 350°. Cook spaghetti according to package directions for al dente. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, cook beef and onion over medium heat for 6-8 minutes or onion is tender and beef is no longer pink, breaking meat into crumbles; drain. Stir in pasta sauce and seasoned salt; set aside.
  • 2. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, Parmesan cheese and butter. Drain spaghetti; add to the egg mixture and toss to coat.
  • 3. Place half the mixture in a greased 13x9-in. baking dish. Top with half of the cottage cheese, meat sauce and mozzarella cheese. Repeat layers. Place baking dish on a rimmed baking sheet.
  • 4. Cover and bake for 40 minutes. Uncover and bake for 20-25 minutes longer or until heated through. Let stand for 15 minutes before serving. If desired, sprinkle with basil.
 
Weedygarden said:
This just popped up today. I haven't watched all of it yet, but it is an interesting take on store bought sauces.

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That was a good video! I use jarred sauce more than I like to, comes in handy! I can always taste the sugar. I use Newman's Own because it's not so sweet!
 
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