I use ground beef and medium Italian sausage (casings removed), onions, garlic, carrot, celery, canned crushed tomatoes, red wine, and a bunch of herbs, and green/red/orange/yellow bell peppers if I have some on hand or frozen. I will sometimes substitute canned crushed tomatoes with a jar of Ragu!

This makes enough sauce for 2 pounds of spaghetti so I freeze half. If you don't have a large stockpot or don't want leftovers...it's easy to cut the recipe in half.

Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 Pound Bacon, Chopped
1 Pound Ground Sirloin
1 Pound Ground Pork (you could use all sirloin)
2 Onions, chopped
6 Cloves Garlic, Chopped
Salt & Ground Black Pepper
1 Tablespoon Tabasco Sauce
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
3 Cups Beef Stock (or, two 12-Ounce bottles of good quality beer)
2 (14-ounce) Cans, Chopped or Crushed Fire Roasted Tomatoes
2 (8-ounces) Cans, Tomato Sauce
Fresh Basil

Heat a stockpot over medium-high heat. Add extra-virgin olive oil and bacon. Brown and crisp bacon, 5 minutes, remove with a slotted spoon. Drain off a little excess fat if necessary. Leave just enough to coat the bottom of the skillet.

Add the beef and pork. Crumble the meat as it browns, 3 to 4 minutes. Add onions, garlic and stir into meat. Season the meat with salt and pepper, hot sauce and Worcestershire.

Add the beef stock (or beer) and deglaze the pan.

Cook 5 to 6 minutes more to reduce then stir in tomatoes, tomato sauce, & the crumbled bacon. Simmer for 30 minutes.

Just before serving, stir in a fistful of torn fresh basil leaves.

/tricia

Here's my simple recipe:

Brown a chopped onion.
Brown a pound or so of ground beef. Drain.
Throw in a couple of 8 oz cans of tomato sauce, a can of tomato paste and a can of chopped tomatoes. Add garlic powder, salt, pepper, dried oregano, dried basil, a little sugar. Simmer. Serve over spag.

Now, over the years I've learned to expand on this with additional herbs and spices. I now use minced fresh garlic instead of powder. Sometimes I'll grate carrots & cook separately till softened and add them in for additional nutrition. Sometimes I'll throw in some sour cream to make it more creamy. Or whatever strikes my fancy.

But if you're looking for simple and quick, the above recipe does the job.

cseim - oh my gosh - this one is so good and so fresh tasting...from AnnT

Tomato, garlic and basil sauce  AnnT
I par boil a couple of Italian sausage, just long enough to firm up so I can removed the skin. Then slice the sausage and brown in some olive oil. Add some minced garlic and season with crushed fennel seed and some hot red pepper (if you use hot sausage you probably don't need to add more hot pepper), dried basil, salt and pepper. Add one 28 oz can of quality Italian tomatoes, breaking them up with a fork or wooden spoon. Simmer the sauce while the water is boiling and then cook your favourite pasta shape. Add a handful of fresh chopped basil and serve. I vary this from time to time. Adding fresh rosemary or adding a little white wine before adding the tomatoes.
Ann

Another great one from Lorijean:

Bowties with Sausage, Tomatoes and Cream - Lorijean
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound sweet Italian sausage
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/2 cup diced onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 28-ounce can Italian diced tomatoes
1-1/2 cups whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 pound bowtie pasta
3 tablespoons fresh minced basil
Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
Heat oil in large heavy skillet over medium heat. Remove casings from sausage, crumble and cook in oil with crushed pepper until sausage is no longer pink, about 7 minutes. Add onion and garlic and cook another 5-7 minutes until tender. Drain tomatoes, chop coarsely and stir into sausage along with cream, salt and basil. Simmer until mixture thickens slightly, about 4 minutes.
In a separate pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta al dente. Drain pasta and add to simmering sauce. Garnish with Parmesan and parsley. Serves 4.
Source: An Appetite for Art, copyright 2001
Lori

These are my "go-to's" when I want a wonderful fresh tasting pasta sauce FAST! And, I love Ragu - so maybe this is right up your hubby's alley!

I hope Ann chimes in and posts one of her pics - you will be sold.

Stacy

Thanks ya'll! Those all sound great. I can't wait to try them out!

Maybe the addition of some Italian sausage is the key ingredient to a really good meat sauce? I think I will be sure to have that available the next time I fix sauce for spaghetti - when the weather cools off some!

My sister makes great spaghetti sauce doctoring a jar of Prego's sauce - has to be Prego's. She adds extra Italian seasonings and a touch of brown sugar. Here is her recipe:

Nita's Spaghetti Sauce

1/2 lb. lean ground beef
1/2 lb. Italian sausage
1 clove garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
1 TB Worcestershire sauce
1 TB plus brown sugar
1 TB Italian herb seasonings
1 bay leaf
1 glass jar mushrooms
1 large jar Prego traditional sauce

Brown beef, sausage, garlic, onion. Drain fat off. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer 45-60 minutes. Remove bay leaf before serving over hot cooked spaghetti.

cseim, you need to learn to be a bit more sneaky when getting rid of the evidence - the jars of bottled sauce. ;o)

My recipe:

VITTORIA'S SPAGHETTI SAUCE
Serves 12

2 pounds spaghetti

4 Tbs olive oil
3 large mild Italian sausage links
2 medium yellow onion, chopped
30 ounces tomato, peeled and diced
30 ounces tomato sauce
24 ounces tomato paste
4 cloves garlic
1 stalk celery, cut in half
1 whole bay leaf
3 sprigs parsley, Italian flat leaf
3 sprigs oregano
1 cup Chianti
2 teaspoons sugar
¼ cup basil, fresh, chopped
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
fresh ground black pepper
salt -- to taste

Directions:

Heat olive oil in bottom of large stock pot on medium-high. Brown sausage and remove with slotted spoon.

Put in onion and sauté until soft.

Add tomato (with juices), tomato sauce, tomato paste and a bouquet garni of garlic, parsley, oregano, and the bay leaf (enclosed within the halves of the celery stalk).

Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 2 hours on low. Keep a lid on the pot but keep it slightly askew.

Return sausage to pot, add Chianti, pepper flakes, sugar, basil, pepper and salt.

Simmer for another 2 hours. Keep a lid on the pot but keep it slightly askew.

If you've made meatballs, add them to the last hour of cooking.

[This was the sauce that I grew up on. It may not be EXACTLY as grandmother made it, but itÂs as close as I could come.]

Joe

My sauce was my mom's and my gran's before her, so it's been in the family for awhile. It can be made easiest in either a crockpot or pressure cooker (I use the latter).

SPAGHETTI SAUCE

1 lb hamburger (use ground sirloin for leanest, or 93/7 beef)
onion and garlic powder to taste
3 8-oz cans tomato sauce (no salt added works)
3 8-oz cans water
1 15-oz can tomato paste
oregano and basil to taste

Brown the hamburger at the bottom of the pressure cooker or in a fry pan. Sprinkle onion and garlic powder on it to taste. (If in fry pan, transfer to bottom of crock-pot at this point). Add tomato sauce, water, and tomato paste to ground beef. Stir well. Add shakes of oregano and basil to taste (I started at 1 tsp each and just tried different amounts each time I made it until I found the balance my family liked.) At this point, if using pressure cooker, cover the cooker, bring to pressure, let jiggle 10 min and bring down the fast way (using water over it). If using crock-pot, cover and let cook for about 6-8 hours.

Cook noodles according to package directions. Our favorite comes out of Chicago Heights, IL - Cipriani's Egg Vermicelli. But we've used Angel Hair pasta and Angel Hair nests out of the store, too. Serve with cheese (if desired) and garlic bread (if desired).

Yum! The more I read the hungrier I get. Thanks for everyone's help!

Tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, and cheese! If you don't like onions or mushrooms leave them out. Meat is optional but most often cooked hamburger... cook it in another pan so you can drain the grease before adding to the sauce. I get "italian seasonings" but rosemary is the most important. Parmeasan cheese is a good thickener but mozerella gets long and stringy which is fine with long stringy spagetti.

Spagetti sauce is so hard to get wrong. Warm up some tomatoes and add good stuffs. Tomatoes, olive oil, and italian seasonings makes a fine fine spagetti sauce.

Don't like tomatoes how about butter and parmeasan cheese?

Most any meat works. Can't say I've tried fish. Pork adds a distinctive sweetness. I seldom use meat anymore because spagetti sauce is so good and fast without it.

: )
lyra

Okay, here's my recipe, which is basically how my mom made hers. I wrote it down one day for my daughter, but the amounts really are flexible. I usually use Italian Seasoning in place of the individual herbs and we like Italian sausage for the meat instead sometimes, too.

Becky

* Exported from MasterCook *

Spaghetti Sauce

Recipe By :Becky Chatham
Serving Size : 8 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
1 pound ground beef, lean
1 onion -- chopped
5 garlic cloves -- minced
32 ounces tomato sauce
16 ounces tomatoes, canned -- chopped
6 ounces tomato paste
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried basil
2 tablespoons dried parsley
1 teaspoon salt

Brown beef, onion and garlic and drain well. Stir in remaining ingredients and simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

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NOTES : You can double all ingredients except for beef to make a larger quantity.