Need a quick, satisfying meal to feed everyone? This is how we do spaghetti at our house. It’s simple and very affordable.

Spaghetti sauce

2 cans crushed tomatoes 28 oz.

1 can tomato paste 12 oz.

3 Tab italian seasoning

2 Tab salt

1 Tab minced garlic

Stir all this together in a saucepan a few hours in advance. Keep it on a low simmer and stir often. Doug wants me to keep it simmering for at least an hour, but I’ll admit that I keep turning it off and running to do other things. He doesn’t complain when I serve it! Better to turn it off, than to come back and find it burnt.

Note that this recipe makes plenty enough to save for pizza sauce for another day. I usually end up with about a quart of sauce to save.

Spaghetti

I cook 3 lbs. of spaghetti noodles for our family. We usually have a bit left, which mysteriously disappears. I suspect my seven and five year old are eating it for their evening snack lol.

Spaghetti is best cooked in a big stock pot. I use a stainless steel one, in a 10 quart size. Glass lids are awesome for seeing what is going on.

An important thing to remember when cooking pasta, is to add salt to the cooking water. You can’t make up for the lack of it by adding salt later. Put a generous amount of water in your pot. Use the box directions to help you gauge how much water for how much pasta you are cooking. Then add a generous amount of salt. For 3 lbs. of pasta, I add about 3-4 Tab of salt.

Bring it to a good boil, and then add your pasta. Stir, stir, stir! Pasta sticks fast, and can burn on the bottom. Don’t ask me how I know that lol.

When it is done to your liking (taste a piece), drain it into a colander in the sink. Put the pasta back in the pan, and drizzle it with olive oil. Stir that oil right in.

Now, let’s plate it! If you’ve never heard that phrase, it’s a fancy way of saying, “Let’s make this meal look pretty on the plate.”

Make sure your sauce is hot (since we kept turning it off). Use salad tongs to make a nice mound of spaghetti noodles. Top with sauce, and sprinkle with shredded mozzerella and parmesan cheese. Garlic bread is a perfect side for this meal.

Remember to save your leftover sauce for pizza! Enjoy!

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