3 cans of cheap sauce (i use "hunts")
1 onion
4 cloves of garlic
random vegetables from your freezer or fridge
oregano/pizza seasoning
salt/soy sauce

Chop onion, mince garlic, puree veggies and combine all ingredients in a pot and simmer. Season to taste ^_^

My roommate eats alot of pasta and expects me to make it from scratch...... this way he never can really tell.

Gifted in the art of Augmentation! NICE!!!

I posted several similar recipes such as http://www.mingle2.com/topic/show/264135 (beef in sauce over noodles). They are quite easy too. A jar of spaghetti sauce is the base.

If someone can't cook, there's no way they're gonna know if it's 'doctored' ... but, since there's nothing wrong with 'doctoring' food (fresh or from a can), it's all good ... and if it tastes good, who cares ... ? It's all about da flavah ...

Being a true Sicilian

a canned or jar sauce is a sin....definite confessional. Ha

my sauce from scratch is started on a Saturday for Sunday dinner

but once I cheated and used Ragu as a base

The Gods were not pleased......

Yeah, my sauce from scratch takes a long time too and it's yummy but sometimes it is the difference in having the dish and not having the dish if there just isn't time.

You don't have to kill a cow to make a good hamburger. But if you did you could probably make a better burger!

Ya know when the kids were small

my mom and I every summer would can our own sauce-as soon as the tomatoes were ripest. We would go to a nearby farm and pick them by the bushel

then the next day spend the whole day canning

that was sauce!! Homemade and handy!!

Then the men would spend a day hanging sausage- pepperoni-salamis

those were the days- very few Italians do this anymore

What a wonderful story. We Texans spend days smoking meats and take the job oh so seriously. I ate a link of handmade Pecan smoked jalapeno-cheese pork and venison sausage yesterday for lunch. Nothing you can buy in the store compares.

Wish I could try your sauce!

And then there is chili!

Ryvienna, it sounds good! I might try your version!

Being a single fulltime working mom with 2 pasta craze kids at home sometimes I take shortcuts! Our favorite is made with Prego sphagetti sauce, I add a can of hunts plain tomatoe sauce, a little water, some hambuger or chicken ( or both),onions,spices,sugar..sometimes a variation of other things I have around....let it all simmer about an hour while preparing the pasta & salad...Whoala!! Everyone gets a hot healthy filling dinner and theres usually enough for lunch the next day!! Fantastic