Spaghetti Sauce- Ketchup and Kraft American Cheese Slices

Or make up a quick batch of traffic cones..

That's the same school of thought, which it is not nor contains any of, which says that frozen fishsticks and canned green beans is an elegant shore dinner. They are also the ones who put a dollop of Cream of Mushroom soup on everything on your plate - fish, fowl or beast, potato, squash or leafy green - it doesn't matter, they pour it on.

Making Spaghetti Sauce at my mom's house and, I have to proudly say, for the first years at my house, was a two to three day process.

First, two or three or four crushed garlic cloves were barely(slooowly) browned in olive oil while onions and peppers were chopped fine. (Watch the garlic, you're trying to tan them...)The garlic pieces are spooned out of the oil (save some of them on the side) and the veggies put in and, again, sloooowly simmered in the oil until they are soft. Smushable by wooden spoon was mom's test. Meanwhile, canned or fresh tomatos are whirled in a blender (don't beat them to death, there should be a few chunky pieces left). Pour the tomates into the smushy vegetables and oil. Add a little can (or two) of tomato paste and GO AWAY. Let all this simmer on the stove for awhile, maybe half an hour.

Then taste. Add what you like - a little basil, put some of the garlic pieces back in (you didn't throw them out, did you?) some oregano, some salt, some parsley, then GO AWAY.
Again, maybe a half hour. Taste again. Fix what is needed but don't fuss. Simmer until it shrinks an inch or two. Meaning that the level of liquid in the pot is an inch or two lower than it was at first. It should be cooking so slowly that you don't have to worry that you have to be stirring every five minutes. You can stir but don't go stir crazy.

What you get after this simmers for four hours or so is a rich tomato sauce that you can use as a base whatever else you want to make. Put some hot or sweet (what the heck a little of both) sausage in, or brown some good hamburger, drain the grease off and put it in. Take some of the base sauce and melt in a hunk of grated parmesan and a lump of two of mozzarella. Nice color and cheesy taste. Or add some hot pepper flakes if you are making lasagna- big noodles and cheese~so bland--.
Hot it up.

Put a hunk of fish in it, or clams, or chicken (take the skin off), it's the base sauce for everything. Put turkey thighs in it or pork shanks, yum.

When we were hippies, some of us were vegans, some of us were ova-lactos and some were omnivorous suction hoses of the universe. I used to serve four or five different sauces at a party. Take the base sauce and stir in chopped cooked spinach and chopped cooked eggplant for the vegans - no cheese please. Oh, and a hand full of browned pinenuts, too. God, that is so good. The ovo-lacto folks got good thick ricotta and slabs of mozzarella and the meat-eaters chowed down the aforementioned hot and sweet sausage as well as pepperoni, sopressa and pancetta. The meats have got to cook in the sauce for at least a couple of hours.

Joe(Who wants seconds?)Nation

PS Thanks to Phoenix for making me think about cooking again.

Joe- Wow, that sounds good. I will have to try it!

Canned tomatoes are perfectly fine and they have more lycopene than fresh, anyway. So they're really good for cold weather cooking. Fresh just taste better, though, hence they're good for summer cooking.

Start a large pot on high heat with absolutely nothing in it. When it's hot, pour in enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pot, but not too deeply. Toss in fresh veggies, really any kind are nice. Carrots make an interesting change of pace and sweeten things up since tomatoes can be acidic. Peppers, if used, should be added later, as their flavor really dominates everything. Toss in peeled and crushed cloves of garlic, to taste, if you wish. Basil, oregano, really, whatever you like. If you like onions, add them now as they take a while to cook.

I like adding turkey sausage, other folks prefer no meat or their own sausage, whatever. Should be added pretty close to the start of the cooking process, as they take a while to cook.

Once the other veggies and meat (if desired) are cooked, toss in the canned or fresh tomatoes as they take the least amount of time to cook. Also add mushrooms if you wish because they also cook very quickly. In the meantime, start the pasta.

Once the pasta is done, reserve some of the cooking water and add it to the sauce, but only if the sauce is too thick and chunky (which is how some really like it). To thicken, use flour or corn starch, make sure the thickening agent is well-blended and cooked so that the sauce doesn't take on a raw flour taste.

Serve over pasta and add freshly grated parmesan to the top, to taste.

This is not as good as the kind of sauce that takes days, but it is rather tasty and takes an hour or less. If the sauce is too acidic, toss in a little sugar or more carrots. Too sweet? Add more tomatoes. Adjust spices as desired or for more variety. Joe has already provided some vegan variations.

I do believe that ketchup and plastic cheese on top of spaghetti is a crime.

....although i love ketchup.

.......and i must admit i like the plastic cheese too


.....and who the heck wouldn't like spaghetti.....

....maybe i lived on my own for too long...

Have you guys ever tried the fresh spaghetti, that cooks in about a minute? That stuff is wonderful, (and I don't serve it with ketchup and cheese! :wink: )

Really?

Maybe it tastes better than it sounds....

the "fresh" spaghetti is all we eat in this household (I eat lots but the lady Diane is mostly a meat eater). As I type this I am eating left-over pasta that Osso made last night, it has spinich and herbs and a sprinkly of lemon juice. Makes good brekkies.

Never heard of the ketchup and spaghetti thing!

Oooh, dys gets to eat Osso-made leftovers. <jealous>

I occasionally make it from scratch, but Trader Joe's has some honestly good sauce in jars. Usually treat it like the base sauce Joe talks about, add stuff to it before serving.

Trader Joe's absolutely rocks. Especially for their prices of cheese.

My mom grew up in Brooklyn and they ate ketchup on spaghetti. I don't know about the cheese - but then that would have made it dairy...

Dad taught Mom how to cook, and in my memory, we always had homemade sauce at home.

I buy the jar stuff, preferably chunky, not too picky about brand or flavor. It's too much trouble to make it from scratch when I'm the only one eating it. I do doctor it up sometimes and usually add lots of veggies i.e. more broccoli (or whatever) than pasta on my plate.

OK Mac, I think that we are getting closer. BROOKLYN!

Ms. Picky doesn't like store tomatoes much.. even the hothouse ones are sometimes mushy or flavorless. I live for tomato season and local farmers' markets. Now that's something nifty to look forward to here in Abq... my own tomato patch. Anyway, I prefer good canned ones to cardboard fresh ones.

I like and make fresh pasta sometimes. Good with a nice bolognese sauce..

That was actually old pasta Dys ate, heh. It had spinach sauteed in butter and garlic, whole milk ricotta, parmigiano, and squeezed lemon juice in with some rigatoni. Better made fresh, but still good warmed up later.

Ms. Picky will be quiet now.

I'll pass along a fantastic sauce recipe that actually uses ketchup as one of the primary ingredients.

In a bowl combine 2 tablespoons of ketchup, 1 tablespoon of dijon mustard, about 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, 1 teaspoon of garam marsala, 1 teaspoon of ground cumin, a dash of cayenne, and a pinch of salt. Heat some oil in a skillet and gently saute a little chopped garlic, then add 1 cup of heavy cream to the bowl and mix. Pour into skillet, stir, and cook until slightly thickened, about three minutes.

Pour this over chicken or pork or fish or even pasta. I put it over chicken breasts which have already been topped with sauteed onions, jalapenos, and ginger.

Not exactly spaghetti sauce in the classical sense, but damn good.

Canned sauce is just fine. Pour it over the cooked ground beef and onions, add crushed red chilis and a can or two of diced tomatoes, and there you go.

Everyone is crazy except me and thee and I think thee are a bit strange at times.

yum, cjhsa.


Dear Friends:

Earlier today I emailed my brother and sisters and informed them of what I was about to do. The response was not as generous as I had hoped and I may be elected 'adopted orphan' for several years in a row because of what I am about to reveal.

After careful consideration, I have decided on a course of action that may divide my family. We have always had the best spaghetti sauce in the world at our houses. We win prizes and astound even the most experienced chefs with the taste and texture of our sauce. That is due to a family secret, passed on to each of us as we reached the age when we could understand the importance of it. I have never spoken of it before now except to my children.

Here it is. For nearly two years in her youth my Irish mother took care of a dying Italian man in his home(she was a RN) and while papa was upstairs declining, she was downstairs learning all of the culinary secrets of his family from his wife. There is one thing to add to my recipe above, yes, of course, I left it out, and if you add it, you too will have the very best sauce. No doubt.

This is a secret my family has kept for years, but I feel the time is right to reveal it to a larger world. And so my friends,

Excuse me there is someone at my door. I'll be right back.

word around town is that noddy is a poopity head.

Dys--

You can't believe hearsay--only some of it is true.

Yuck! Well, maybe not yuck... but not spagh sauce.

I am in my own camp, perhaps. I am not a fan of tomato sauce in general, what I make is more of a chunky canned-crushed-tomato salsa (better term for me than sauce) heavy with added olive oil, garlic, herbs and onions. I usualy toss in some pinenuts and feta cheese, too. So, it's not really a sauce and it's not really home made.