Pasta sauces are as varied as can be. You can gently heat some garlic in EVOO and add chopped Italian parsley, and that's a sauce. I like to cook shrimp in EVOO. remove the shrimp form the pan and add garlic, canned chopped tomatoes, a dash of red pepper flakes, some oregano and/or basil, and that's a sauce. My meat sauce takes a long day of simmering because I want the tomato puree to cook.

Try googling "simple pasta sauces" and you'll find a wealth of recipes. Here are a few.

Yes, many quick sauce recipes out there.

The idea when using tomatoes from a can is to get the 'tin' taste out by adding some aromatics of your choosing and making it the way you like it. Mothers the world over have their own special way.

The long simmering all day affair is usually referring to Fall garden harvest. We have a few of those days near the end of Sept but we are prepping and making a variety of sauces and dishes portioned for the freezer. I think DH counted 42 tomatoes in the ground and another bed is going in this weekend. I believe i have another 3 dozen tomato starts in the barn window.

I made a good roasted sauce for my parents while visiting them. They no longer garden but for a few herbs and salad greens.

2 large cans whole tomatoes

1 large can crushed tomatoes

1 onion cut in 1 inch sections, a few garlic cloves, 2 med carrots in 1 inch cuts, 1 celery rib cut the same. 1 jalapeno cut in quarters, optional, red pepper cut in 2 inch pieces, optional (i added a beet and a small sweet potato for dad...he likes when i add extra veg in things)

pre-heat oven to 275-300

Add the whole tomatoes to a large bowl and separate the toms from their juices, cut in half and place on a parchment lined rimmed sheet pan/cookie sheet cut side up and place the veggies in and around the toms. Sprinkle with some evOliveOil.

Roast low and slow for a hour, check on them. I roasted for almost 2 hours. The roasted toms should shrink by half concentrating the flavors. The carrots should be soft checked with a fork.

While the toms are roasting put the crushed can and the juices from the whole toms in a sauce pan on low simmer.

Some of the roasted toms went into a zip-lock laying flat and frozen for adding to baked fish or chicken. Frozen flat you can take out just a few at a time. Dad likes then added to his grocery frozen flatbread pizza.

The rest goes in the saucepan with the simmering sauce. Done. I froze a few pints for them. At home i would put in batches in the blender or Cuisinart. But they like it a bit chunky.

Dad likes a meat sauce so i browned up some ground beef then added some of the sauce for a pasta dinner that night. For lunch the next day i added a cup of stock and a cup of milk to a pint of sauce in their vintage blender for tomato soup.

So, a two hour sauce, that can be used for many dishes. Nice roasted flavor.

*the veggies could be diced smaller before roasting if a good blender or cuisinart is not available. Dad said more than once he liked the veg chunky but liked the tomato soup also.

All of it freezes well for quick meals.

Should have made a double batch for more frozen meals. Would have been nice to have the tom soup in frozen pint portions.

My choice for sauce is typically marinara. Doesn't take more than 20-30 minutes. Over the past couple weeks I've made a few using homegrown tomatoes. Those have to cook down a bit longer.

I only use olive oil, garlic, tomatoes (that I crush with my hands or puree), sometimes crushed red pepper, S&P, and fresh basil.

Classic Marinara

There are several pasta sauce threads, here in the Cooking Forum. Just do a search at the top of the page.

Pasta sauce with meat needs enough time for the meat the breakdown completely. The way I was taught to cook sauce with meat requires three days. If you are not using meat, you can make pasta sauce in three hours.

1 can of Tuttorosso crushed tomatoes - 28 ounce size

2 cans of Contadina tomato paste - 6 ounce size

Garlic powder, oregano, brown sugar - all to taste

Mix everything and simmer for 3 hours, stirring every 15 minutes or so. While there are a multitude of canned crushed tomatoes and tomato paste, I've always used these two brands in the 40 years I've been making pasta sauce.

Do you mean meat sauce? Because lots of good sauces don't have meat in them. A good shortcut is a tomato sauce with meat, rather than a meat sauce. Put some large cans of good tomato puree/dice/whole in a large pot (or tomatoes that you've previously cooked and reduced)--go for approximately equal volume of tomato, fresh veg and meat. Add a can or two of tomato paste, and about as much water as tomato. Stir well. Add Italian herbs (fresh or dried: oregano, basil, thyme, marjoram, or
maybe rosemary and/or sage--or use a jarred blend), seasoning, and garlic, to taste (at least a tsp. of each herb, and a couple cloves of garlic, chopped or crushed), and simmer, on low.

Sauté chopped onions in the pan with a little olive oil, until soft and glassy, or even slightly brown, though a very little fat will do and add to the tomato pot. Sauté your other vegetables (whatever you have, chopped, e.g., bell
pepper, zucchini, a little carrot for sweetness, fresh tomatoes, green beans, etc. A mild chili
pepper is very good, if you like that kind of thing) until they soften a
bit and add to the pot. Brown Italian sausage and ground beef separately, and add to the pot. Deglaze the pan with water or wine and add to the pot. Put sliced mushrooms in the pan at a med-high heat, adding a little more fat if needed. When they're softened/brown add a large splash of robust red wine (or varietal grape juice if you don't want the alcohol), and sauté, letting them steam off a bit until the pan is almost dry. Cover for about 8-10 minutes at heat. Uncover and finish steaming off the released water. Add to the rest.

You can sauté each component in separate pans, at the same time, to speed things up. It's the sauté that's the speed anyway, rather than cooking them all in the sauce. Add a little water if necessary. Bring the sauce pot to the boil and simmer for half an hour. Or three hours. Or five. The sauce will be richer, and the meat less distinct, the longer you simmer, but it should be a good tomato sauce with meat after the half hour.

Here is a link to one of the recipes i used...

The Simple Trick That Makes Canned Tomatoes Taste Amazing

Pasta is a neutral ground, kinda like white bread. What will you put on it? The world is your oyster!

I cook mine for about 4 hours.

Personally, every week I make meat sauce with Italian Sausage, onions, garlic, fresh herbs, crushed or pureed tomatoes, a touch of tomato paste, a hint of a secret ingredient (Parmesan Rinds), and oh, that other secret ingredient (Anchovy Paste). Always spectacular. We are carnivores here, so Italian Sausage is a must and mostly I make my own.

Here is the recipe I have used for years. It may not be authentic, but my family and everybody who eats it loves it. You can also use fresh oregano and basil instead of dried.

Adeline’s Spaghetti
Sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 pound ground beef

1 medium onion, chopped

2 large cloves garlic, minced or crushed with garlic press

1 16-oz can Italian tomatoes or 2 8-oz cans tomato sauce

1 6-oz can tomato paste + 2 cans water

1 beef bouillon cube

1/4 cup parsley, minced or 1 tablespoon dried

1 bay leaf, broken in half

1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 – 1 1/2 pounds cooked spaghetti

Parmesan cheese

Put oil in pan, add beef and cooked until pinkness is
gone.

Place onion, tomatoes or tomato sauce, tomato paste, and
water in blender. Blend until onion is
blended. Pour into beef. Put garlic in garlic press and press into
beef mixture. Add bouillon cube,
parsley, broken bay leaf, oregano, basil, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer 1 hour*, stirring
occasionally. Discard bay leaf and serve
over spaghetti with Parmesan cheese.

*I have also let this cook at a very slow simmer for several
hours.

Marcella's butter and onion sauce is the best!

There are Asian style sauces that take minutes.

Meat sauces are wonderful but you can also have raw sauces. One I love in the summer :

Halve some cherry tomatoes, put in a bowl. Add a splash of olive oil, salt and pepper, crushed garlic, chopped anchovies, chopped black olives, (the proper purple ones, not the horrid dyed black ones), chopped capers, basil. Use all, some or your own choice of veggies. Pour over your cooked pasta. I like crispy, garlicky breadcrumbs sprinkles over too.

Prefer the fresh summer harvest sauces! soon...tomatoes in the garden are just knee high...

We do cook seasonally so actually i like them all.

I think pink_warm was referring to the long involved red sauces usually used as is, preserved, canned, frozen...for a pasta meal or as a base sauce for other dishes like a meat sauce etc.

Marcella taught me so much being my first set of cookbooks...her basic sauce is good. I usually need/want more than something that basic. We don't actually eat much pasta anymore. For a quick sauce it is minor effort.

If i need to serve an army of friends with all their kids i might just choose a couple jars of sauce like Rao's, lol. Good enough these days. Of course some special 'adult' apps and sides and entree and dessert. Kids just like an easy 'spaghetti'.

Do all good homemade pasta sauces actually take hours and days to make successfully?

The simple answer is no.

I had almost forgotten about the fresh pasta sauces. A simple blend of fresh garlic, diced plum tomato, olive oil, basil and freshly grated Parmesan. A true summer treat!

I am a regular devotee of Lidia Bastianich, and she makes gads of quick pasta sauces. They all look great. But few are the classic red tomato type sauces. For that, see the discussion above.

Do all good homemade pasta sauces actually take hours and days to make successfully?

No?...well don't tell Nana.: ). It is tradition to take harvest tomatoes and make sauce that takes days. Usually a prep day, then a simmer day, then a 'done' day. Rome is a frenzy in late August-September as is NY. Similar climates with farms nearby Hudson valley and NJ. Farms surrounding Rome. Italians make fresh sauces in season also. Not just the American sauce most make here with tins.

A small Brooklyn market i pass often has a tarmac side parking area. I buy seeds in the Spring. They stock SeedsFromItaly supplier and very good germination rates and good variety. Forget parking in late August as the lot is full of box trucks full of tomato crates and wine grapes. Toms for Nana and grapes for Pop to make wine. Sons and grandsons picking up crates for their elders. It is tradition. Every family has a recipe held dear.

I agree no need to do that but i do. Fresh garden toms make a superior sauce.

Good alternative are noted and listed above. I still have various packets i'm using up from last season from the freezer. No comparison to tins.

Sleevendog, I guess if you're cooking crates full of tomatoes it would be a longer process. I've made a few sauces this season with my own tomatoes, but typically only use 12-14 tomatoes per batch, so it goes pretty fast. I cook them down in an open skillet.

When fresh tomatoes are in season, this is my favorite pasta sauce. I often add crabmeat to it. The hot pasta does melt the cheese.

PASTA WITH FRESH TOMATOES

5 medium-size vine-ripened tomatoes

1 Tbs. red wine vinegar (can substitute basalmic)

1 or 2 cloves garlic, chopped (can use more)

1/2 cup good olive oil

1 cup chopped fresh basil

Salt & Pepper to taste

1/4 Lb. Brie cheese, rind off, cubed

Linguini noodles or other pasta

Peel, seed and drain tomatoes. Chop coarsely. Sprinkle with vinegar after placing in a bowl. In a small skillet, cook the garlic in olive oil until softened but not browned. Add to tomatoes; stir. Add basil, salt and pepper. Marinate at room temperature for several hours. Cook linguini al dente; drain. Toss with tomato mixture and cheese cubes. Serves 4-6.

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I made Marcella's butter and onion sauce, and my entire family eagerly looked forward to eating it one Sunday afternoon. What a disappointment, not one of us liked it. All of my family members told me to "trash that recipe," and I gladly did so.

There's not a lot quicker than a basil pesto....and really quick if you do as I do and always have some in the freezer.

Marcella Hazan's Essential Classics of Italian Cooking is filled with sauces that are delicious and don't take a huge amount of time. I liked the butter-onion sauce, but prefer some others. Biba Caggiano and Lidia Bastianich also have some.

This pasta sauce adapted from Lidia Bastianich is for a Trapanese Pesto (Pesto di Trapani). It takes as long as it takes to boil water. Make it with one pound of whatever pasta you feel like.

• One pint of cherry tomatoes
• 12 to 15 large leaves of basil
• 3 to 4 cloves garlic
• 1/3 c to 1/2 cut slivered almonds (you can toast if you prefer)
• 1/4 tsp red chili pepper
• 1/2 tsp sea salt -- more if you don't have it (true sea salt is more intense)
• 1/2 cup grated or flaked parm
• 1/2 cup EVOO

Whirl the former ingredients in a blender or food processor until chopped, slowly drizzle in olive oil until finely dice/smooth/pasty. Mix into your hot pasta.

Pasta Puttanesca is our favourite fast pasta with sauce.

We like that, too, Jasdip. In fact, I use your recipe.

Naturally, I'll try the one that takes the least time first; however, there are so many wonderful ideas here, I shall be very busy. Thank you one and all. Yum.

Pink

PWM, just remember the adjectives: A half hour sauce should be "fresh", "bright", "clean". A five hour sauce should be "rich", "complex", "deep".

Re making your own tomato base, a lot depends on where you live, and how good the tomatoes really are, whether homegrown or bought. If you have great tomatoes, and are planning to use them for pasta sauce, it's most common to process and can or freeze them at their peak. The recipes are the same whether you use commercial or home made. My idea of pasta with fresh tomatoes, however, is along the lines of what Ruthanna posted, rather than making puree for days for just one pot of sauce. By the time it's cooked down, I don't find enough difference between homemade and the good kind of bought to make a big enough difference for a long simmered, complex sauce which cooks the "freshness" right out of it. I did that when I had no way to can or freeze, and plenty of extra hours for mindless cooking, but it's not efficient. :) Much better to use the fresh tomatoes as fresh, unless you're preserving your garden's produce or live in a place where excellent tomatoes aren't common.

I very lightly fry some minced garlic in olive oil & pour it over the pasta, sprinkle some chopped parsley and salt. Takes a couple of minutes.

When I could still eat hot sauces, I'd fry a pinch of chilli flakes to the olive oil before adding the garlic.

Sometimes when I'm in a real hurry, I just put a bit of butter and salt on the pasta. Can't get simpler and quicker, plus it's just delicious.

We are excitedly awaiting fresh tomatoes at the Farmer's Market here in Northern Virginia - due to show at the end of this month! Will try those recipes first that call for fresh. Yum. Thanks to all posters.