Shortcut Spaghetti Sauce

Last month I shared my Easy Cheaty Stroganoff recipe. Another "cheat" recipe of mine is my spaghetti sauce. For special occasions I might do a sauce entirely from scratch. But for a normal evening at my house I am usually wrangling a rowdy 4 1/2 year old, a mischievous 2 year old, and a clingy 8 month old. As you might imagine, my time is not always my own. Little shortcuts save my life. Alright, maybe that is too melodramatic. But it has certainly saved my sanity.

Instead of making my sauce completely from scratch, or doing the opposite and popping open a jar of sauce and heating it up, I "doctor" jarred or canned spaghetti sauce. Here is one of the variations that I often do.

Start with olive oil, add onions, mushrooms, and bell peppers and saute until softened.

Remove veggies from the pot. Add ground beef, and some Jimmy Dean ground sausage and cook until browned.

Add the veggie mix and some garlic back in. Add basil, oregano, and red pepper flakes (This is optional. Not everyone likes a kick of heat in their sauce.). Then add some wine and give it a stir. Let it simmer for a couple minutes.

This next step is VITAL! Do this next step exactly as I tell you!!!

Take the rest of the wine and pour a glass to drink. I usually use a Cabernet for my spaghetti sauces. This Dark Horse wine is a new favorite of mine.

Add a jar or can of your favorite spaghetti sauce and stir. Simmer, drink wine, simmer, drink wine...

Serve over your favorite pasta.

In case you don't want to scroll through all the photos every time you want to make this, the consolidated recipe is below.


***Ingredients***
2 Tbsp olive oil
Half an onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced (I only had mini bell peppers on hand so that's what I used this time)
8 oz mushrooms, sliced (I am a mushroom fiend so I usually use more than 8 oz)
8 oz ground beef (I like to use 93% lean)
8 oz Jimmy Dean Sausage
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
1 cup wine
1 jar or can of spaghetti sauce

***Directions***
In a large saucepan over medium heat, add olive oil, onions, mushrooms, and bell peppers and saute until softened. Remove veggies from the pot. Add ground beef, and some Jimmy Dean ground sausage and cook until browned. Add the veggie mix back in and add some garlic. Add basil, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Then add some wine and give it a stir. Let it simmer for a couple minutes. Add your jar or can of sauce and stir. Simmer. You can simmer this for an hour, or just a few minutes, depending on how early you start it ahead of the rest of your meal. Serve over your favorite pasta.

Happy Cooking!
~Sarah Liz