Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Spur of the Moment Spaghetti Sauce

I was at my sister's house tonight and she just had a baby.  I had set it up so that dinners would be coming to them for a week, so when I got there I was expecting them to have a meal.  To my surprise there was no food there at 5pm.  So I asked what was going on and they let me know that they had received a text message a few minutes prior and that the person who was supposed to be making their dinner was sick and didn't want to chance them getting sick, so they would not be getting dinner.  Well I could not have that happen to my sweet family that I love, so I asked them kindly if I could raid their pantry and refrigerator and make a meal.  This is what I came up with, and by the way, it was a HUGE hit!

Ingredients:
1 12oz can Tomato Sauce
1 12 oz. can Diced Tomatoes with Chili's
6oz. Tomato Paste
2 tsp. minced garlic
3/4 onion chopped
1 lb. ground beef
1/3 C. cream cheese
2 tsp. basil
2 tsp. Oregano
1 tsp. tyme
about 4 flakes of crushed red pepper
4 tbls. butter
1 box of whole wheat spaghetti

Directions:
In a deep pan brown the ground beef, drain and set aside.  In a saute pan melt your butter and add your onion and garlic.  Cook until translucent.  Throw the onion mixture into the deep pan with your beef.  Then add all your ingredients except the spaghetti over medium heat.  Let everything heat up and simmer so the spices combine and it becomes tastey  (About 20-25 min).

When the sauce has about 10 more minutes to simmer bring 4-6 quarts of water to boil and salt heavily.  Once the water is at a rolling boil drop your pasta and cook according to package instructions.  Save about 1/4 cup pasta water.

When pasta is done you can either mix the sauce with the pasta water and pasta, or just drain your pasta and place the sauce on top.  Top with a little grated cheese and voila!  It was easy and delicious!  It was also very creamy because of the cream cheese.  I'm sorry I don't have a picture, but I promise there wasn't any left! 

1 comment:

  1. How kind of you, Jill! We just had a new baby in my family too! I so wish I could take them a warm meal. They live too far away. Your sauce is much like mine, except for the cream cheese. I'll have to try that.

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