Making Canned Spaghetti Sauce Truly Tasty

Making a delicious spaghetti sauce from scratch creates the base of a wonderful meal for your family. These days, however, few people have the time required to prepare such a meal and fall back on canned spaghetti sauces. This recipe will take those canned sauces and make them taste almost as good as if you'd made them from scratch, in a lot less time.

For this recipe you will need the following:
1 lb hamburger or Italian sausage
1 26oz can of canned spaghetti sauce
1 tbsp. olive oil
1-2 cloves of garlic
1/4 onion, diced
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper (optional)
1/2 tbsp. fennel seed
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. garlic powder

None of the above seasonings need to be in exact measurements, you should season your sauce to taste.

Preparing the Meat

Slowly, in a large pot, heat the cloves of garlic and diced onion in olive oil. Heat until the oil thins out and becomes less substantial and more like water. Stir your vegetables regularly so they don't brown or overcook. Carefully add your meat. Regular hamburger works well in this recipe, but I prefer Italian sausage, just as a matter of taste. Brown the meat until it's cooked all the way through and drain well. Preparing your meat in olive oil, garlic, and onion will form the base for your spaghetti sauce and will add flavor to the meat.

Creating the Sauce

Add the canned spaghetti sauce to your pot along with about half of the seasoning. Bring your spaghetti sauce to a boil and then reduce the heat. Let your sauce simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes and add the remaining seasonings while stirring. You can add onion and garlic powder fairly liberally if you want a more potent sauce and cayenne pepper if you want a spicier sauce. Let your sauce simmer for at least another ten minutes, though on a low heat you can let is simmer for well over an hour if you want a thicker and more flavorful spaghetti dish.

The ingredient list above is fairly linear, so if you want to create twice as much simply double the amount of ingredients. The only thing you don't want to specifically double is the onion and garlic, just slightly increase the amount you use depending on how strong of a garlic flavor you want your sauce to have.

Pour this sauce over your favorite pasta and serve with your choice of sides, my favorites being garlic bread and a salad. This should help any cook turn a drab and boring 'instant' spaghetti sauce into something truly delicious.