Quick, easy, cheap spaghetti sauce (cost me less than .50 to make)

[Horse with no Name]

1 small chopped onion
2 cloves minced garlic or 2 tbsp. garlic powder
1 1/2 cup water
1 (6 oz.) can tomato paste
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. basil
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. oregano
Pinch of pepper
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Sautee the onions and garlic in EVOO until they have a nice aroma with a hint of brown. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer uncovered.

I ran across a sale at Kroger a while back where pasta was 10/$1.00 so I literally made a meal for less than $1.00.

This is really, really flavorful and a pretty basic sauce that you can spruce up to your liking.

Another thing that I like to do is when I go to the local farmer's market, I stock up on yellow squash, zucchini, onions and tomatoes. I sautee these in EVOO and throw them in the sauce. Very good over your favorite pasta.

[grasswire]

1. that's the sauce my mom used to make in the 1950s

...but she put a bit of chili powder in it too, and maybe a can of drained mushrooms if she had any.

It has its own particular charm. Tomato paste gives an intense ripe tomato flavor.

[Lucinda]

2. Sounds delicious. I sort of fry the tomato into the sauce that I make

and it takes on a great roasted flavor and darkens. I love bargains too! Ya did good!

[The empressof all]

3. That's absolutely right

Any good (east coast)Italian American cook will always "fry" the paste. It intensifies the flavor and you can pick up more of the good bits off the bottom of the pan. I saute the veggies then plop in the paste and wait till it turns quite dark. Then you add the water, wine, tomato sauce, stock whatever you want. I find you want to leave tomato paste based sauces on the back burner for a while and let them simmer. It improves the flavor with a slow reduction. Sauces that are whole tomato based you can do more quickly.

[Lucinda]

4. I never really liked red sauce until I was in a hurry one day

I don't eat pasta with Bill when we have Italian (he like the noodles waaaay overcooked) - so I usually make a side of Italian Sausage with onions and peppers and maybe fresh tomato that I eat with garlic bread. I was out of tomato, so i swiped a bit of his red sauce (which he likes just sort of combined and heated through) and added it to my sausage pan. The sauce supttered as it hit the olive oil and pan drippings, and then got thicker and darker and smelled amazing as it cooked down. And it was just as tasty as it smelled.

So now I like red sauce.
The end.

(Wish I knew this years ago) :) And thanks for the pointer. I'm going to try making sauce that way!