recipe reviews for:

Basic Sauce for Pasta

“This is a basic mild pasta sauce my mother made for years and is still a family favorite. You can add browned ground beef, mushrooms, grated carrots, zucchini or other veggies. We especially like mushrooms or ground beef. It's easy and quick but as with most things like this, the longer and slower it simmers the better it tastes.”

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Reviewed: Aug. 7, 2011

This was a great starting point. I didn't have any tomato sauce so I made my own using 2 6oz cans of tomato paste. I followed the rest of the recipe like it instructs except for the cheese. I don't like using processed cheese so I went to grab parmesean and was out so I used gargonzola. I just sprinkled a good amount and added garlic salt and used 4 cloves of garlic. It was excellent. My children gobbled it up! Praise to the Lord for helping me on this one!

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1 user found this review helpful

Reviewer:

jessierivas12

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Home Town: Temecula, California, USA

Reviewed: Apr. 27, 2011

The only changes I made to this recipe were to add 1 tsp of sugar and I used Italian seasoning in place of oregano. My husband Loved it, which is saying a lot since he grew up eating real Italian food. I didn't cook the onions and garlic prior, just threw everything together and let it simmer a couple hours. Will make again!

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2 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

mandiroo1213

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Home Town: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA

Living In: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Reviewed: Mar. 1, 2011

This sauce is a little too thin. To make authentic Italian tomato sauce is very easy. For marinara sauce heat a couple of tbs of olive oil & saute crushed garlic and finely chopped 1/2 onion. Add 1 large can of tomato puree, 1/2 can of water, basil, (additional garlic powder and onion powder, & italian spices if you wish), 1 whole carrot which you will remove before serving(this is to remove the bitter taste of some tomatoes & lessen the need to add sugar). Cook on low for about 1/2 hour. Add grated Romano or Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese to taste, additional salt & pepper and that's it. Very simple. To make a meat sauce, just brown ground beef or meatball mix, pour off the fat and add to the sauce. You don't have to buy jarred sauce which is loaded with sugar and thickeners. If you really need a sweeter sauce you can add some sugar, but I never do. The jar sauce is just too sweet. and I believe the cheese sauce is velveeta or cheese wiz. I use grated italian cheese. Can't imagine using cheese wiz!

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7 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

gobomel

Cooking Level: Expert

Reviewed: Feb. 28, 2011

I followed the recipe but ended up adding some tomato paste at the end since it was far too thin without it. We also found it kind of bland so next time I'll add more garlic and lots more Italian seasonings. I'll also skip the water since I think that helped to make it way too runny. It's a good basic sauce but it needs some additions/modifications to make it more than a 3 star recipe.

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3 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

Spinmom

Reviewed: Feb. 15, 2011

I don't know if this is a fair review of the recipe as written...I started out with intentions of making it by the book, but I didn't have cheese sauce or a reg brown onion. So, I used red onion, left out the cheese sauce and water, added ground beef, garlic salt, and some green can parmesan cheese to smooth it out, and it was goooood. I'll make it again.

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3 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

Linda

Reviewed: Dec. 8, 2010

Good easy base. Thank you for the recipe. Easy to add to. I would definitely add more garlic. I used 2 cloves, still not enough. And I added basil and bay leaf. Very quick and easy. Better the longer it simmers.

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2 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

KarensPerspective

Cooking Level: Beginning

Reviewed: Oct. 23, 2010

Delicious - especially for a super easy and quick-to-make marinara-type sauce. Great for a weeknight when you don't have a ton of time to cook. I made the recipe exactly as written, except for parmesan cheese instead of cheese sauce. It was so good and great as a topping for a cubed steak parmesan that I made! Thanks for the recipe!

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3 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

Stephanie

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Reviewed: Apr. 17, 2010

I followed the recipe, except for the cheese sauce /sub Parmesan and this was very runny. We added ground beef to it.

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3 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

IamtheWalrus

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Home Town: Cut Off, Louisiana, USA

Living In: Houma, Louisiana, USA

Reviewed: Jul. 19, 2008

Even though I found it kinda bland but I still found it nice :) Def needs a little basil and more garlic/onion/oregano

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2 users found this review helpful

Reviewer:

dunreadthis

Reviewed: Feb. 17, 2008

I was out of oregano so I just used Italian seasoning instead. Used this sauce for homemade chicken ravioli and it was great! Super easy recipe that you can get going while you're doing other things. Fabulous for a busy mom!

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11 users found this review helpful