Recipes

[Poodlepet2]

...and here is one of my favorites-a Pritchett type sauce. I never know if I'm cooking for one or six, so I eyeball. Take fresh tomatoes-any variety you wish, but plum tomatoes are very good. I chop them taking care to remove seeds and excess liquid. BTW, good quality canned tomatoes work well too, but drain them . I chop up sweet onion and lets not forget garlic! Then I take a hand full of fresh basil and chop it up. Everything goes onto a cookie sheet and gets drizzled with a generous amount of EVOO. It goes into a 350 oven and from here, the cooking time is determined by how much of a bite you want the onions and garlic to have. Stir frequently. Additions you can add and are delicious all together-or one at a time include artichoke hearts, olives, capers, green onion....have fun playing! Poodlepet

[mousiegirl]

Use your imagination. I make pasta sauces up as I go all of the time. You don't have to have a "sauce" per say, for instance, just one of the many, I make a pasta using Italian sausage, I prefer mild, greens such as arugula, spinach, or a mix of sturdy greens, garlic, onions or not, and just use the water I cook the pasta in as the sauce. I make the sauce ingredients, cook the pasta, then add the pasta to the pan, add the water a bit at a time, parmesan, and mix until it is the consistency I like. You can add red pepper flakes for a kick.

[Pook]

My favorite and I guess it's not really a sauce though. I just get tomatoes (any kind really but plum are the best). I sauté them in EVO with mushrooms and lots of Italian seasoning. I serve over angel hair pasta and top with fresh grated parm cheese. With so many tomatoes now I make a lot and freeze it.

[Sammijo10]

I make an easy Piccata sauce - very lemony.

Put the pasta on to boil first. Then chop up about two boneless chicken breasts in bite size pieces and brown in a bit of olive oil. Remove from the pan. Then brown about two/three shallots in a tbs olive oil and a tbs of butter, add two tbs of flour and cook about a minute or two to the color you like your roux, add a half cup of white wine and one cup of chicken broth, the zest of one lemon and the juice of that lemon. Add the pasta to the pan (by now it's cooked) along with the browned chicken and some chopped parsley and capers if you like them. Voila! Chicken with pasta in Piccata sauce! DH puts grated Romano cheese on it, but he puts cheese on everything!

It's not a TRUE Piccata sauce - which I think are tricky - but it works for us!

[nomless]

Lemon sauce: olive oil (or butter), lemon, pasta water, parmesan cheese, salt, pepper. See Giada's recipe for lemon spaghetti on Foodnetwork.com for details, if needed.

[kcladyz]

Take mild italian sausage links, poke in holes , add to crockpot with your fav jar sauce and a bay leaf and cook for 5-6 hours. Sooo good, The sausage juices make a difference

[boby]

For what its worth, real Alfredo sauce contains nothing but butter and cheese(and maybe a tiny pinch of black pepper).

The thing about adding cream got started over 100 years ago when Italian immigrants began coming to America. American cheeses and cream just weren't as rich as the European types, and didn't thicken as much, so folks started adding heavy cream to thicken the dish.

Now I see restaurants adding heavy cream to red and white clam sauces - yuck.

[doglover3]

1 pound sweet Italian sausage
1 pound lean ground beef
1 large coarsely chopped onion
2 to 4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
2 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste

1 empty paste can of wine(good drinking wine)
2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce
2 or 3 tablespoons white sugar
2 tablespoons sweet dried basil
1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

can sprinkle it as you wish when finished or on top of pasta as we prefer
grated Parmesan cheese

In a Dutch oven(stock pot) on the stove top , cook sausage, ground beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and wine. Season with sugar, basil, Italian seasoning, 1 teaspoon salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons parsley. Simmer, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

A little extra work...but, worth it! Also freezes very well and like to have some on hand in the freezer.

When I make this for lasagna I use a beef roast, pork roast and fresh sausage and cut everything into bite size small pieces, brown than follow the recipe as above. You can also make it with this(beef roast, pork roast and sausage) for your pasta sauce as well which I do for company.

[DiamondGirly]

On 9/11/2014 doglover3 said:

1 pound sweet Italian sausage
1 pound lean ground beef
1 large coarsely chopped onion
2 to 4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
2 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste

1 empty paste can of wine(good drinking wine)
2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce
2 or 3 tablespoons white sugar
2 tablespoons sweet dried basil
1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

can sprinkle is as you wish when finished or on top of pasta as we prefer
grated Parmesan cheese

In a Dutch oven(stock pot) on the stove top , cook sausage, ground beef, onion, and garlic over medium heat until well browned. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and wine. Season with sugar, basil, Italian seasoning, 1 teaspoon salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons parsley. Simmer, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.

A little extra work...but, worth it! Also freezes very well and like to have some on hand in the freezer.

When I make this for lasagna I use a beef roast, pork roast and fresh sausage and cut everything into bite size small pieces, brown than follow the recipe as above. You can also make it with this(beef roast, pork roast and sausage) for your pasta sauce as well which I do for company.

Thanks doglover3 (and all) for the great-sounding recipes!! I just have a question about what I put in BOLD and underlined above in the recipe...just wonder if something is missing?

Thank you!!

[doglover3]

I don't put cheese in mine since not everyone likes it so I put it on the table and let everyone put their own in or on. I use either Parmesan or the 3 cheese Italian blend but just put it on the table, not in my sauce as some do. This is why I didn't add cheese to the recipe but said at the end *you can sprinkle is as you wish when finished or on top of pasta as we prefer, grated Parmesan cheese.

My cousin married an Italian guy and this is his recipe but he ALWAYS puts in a cut up pork roast, cut up beef roast and fresh sausage cut into bite size pieces instead of just the lean hamburger and sausage but I only use that when making the sauce for lasagna and just use the lean ground hamburger and sausage for just regular pasta sauce. This does freeze very well so don't worry about making too much.

He also uses more onion and more garlic so I let that up to you how much your family likes.