Stockpile Recipe Spaghetti Sauce

Quite possibly the easiest, cheapest, most readily accessible stockpile recipe is Pasta and Sauce. You can cook up a pound of cheap or free spaghetti, macaroni, spirals, whatever pasta you have in your cupboard, open a jar of Ragu and you are done. It is what you do to jazz up the Ragu that makes it yours. You can add: ground beef, chicken, sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, cut up beef, etc. Add a few herbs and spices and you are set. Serve with a salad, cheap rolls and cheap Parmesan cheese and you have a quick and easy meal.

But what if you don’t have pasta sauce and you do have a load of canned tomatoes? Well, make your own sauce!

• 1 pound ground beef or 1 pound sweet Italian sausage, sliced (or use both)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced (I get cheap jarred garlic and use 2 tsp… too much garlic for you? Cut it down to suit your taste or use 1/2 tsp garlic powder)
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 – 28oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 – 16oz can tomato sauce
• 2 – 6 oz can tomato paste
• 2 tsp oregano
• 2 tsp basil
• 1 tsp parsley
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper

Cook ground beef and/or sausage until browned. Drain, reserving 1 tablespoon of fat.

Cook the garlic and onion in the reserved fat, adding green pepper after 5 minutes just to soften.

Combine all ingredients into pot and simmer on a low heat for 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally.

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Now, I’m sure with all the 75¢ McCormick spice and pepper coupons people have stocked up. The garlic may/may not be a house staple so that would require some planning or, just using the garlic powder. I always have a supply of Parmesan cheese in the freezer. We have a restaurant supply store at the south end of the city that sells bulk items cheaper than Sam’s, BJs or Costco. Like anything else you have to watch, but the Parmesan cheese was under $2 per pound . I am lazy and have bagged salad in the house all the time. Because of all the great Kraft salad dressing coupons, I have free dressing for the rest of the year.

Cheap, easy and obvious. I’ll do better next week, I promise.

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