The Cheater's Spaghetti Sauce

Ok, so I'm a lazy bastard. Sometimes I just want a good plate of pasta without busting my ass over the stove. Is that so bad? So this is not a home made spaghetti sauce recipe from scratch. Sorry to disappoint you if that's what you were hoping for. Still, this recipe makes a pretty bad ass spaghetti sauce.

So the way I make it is I basically buy a jar of Classico, add tomatoes, tomato juice, vegetables, herbs and spices and a crap load of meat.

Here's what I got for ingredients:

• 1 jar of Tomato Basil Classico spaghetti sauce.
• 1 green pepper
• 1 pack of mushrooms (preferably sliced)
• 1 carrot
• 1 small onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 can 540ml of diced tomatoes (I had a couple of leftover tomatoes handy too)
• 1 small shot can of V8
• 1 stick of cinnamon
• 1 lb of lean ground beef
• Italian herbs
• salt
• pepper
• olive oil

And here's how to make the sauce. One thing I learned from the many Italian cooks from the interwebs is that you should mince and soak your garlic in the olive oil before you do anything. So do that first.

• Pour some olive oil in a large pot enough to cover the bottom.
• Mince the clove of garlic and dump it in the pot with the oil to let it soak.
• Chop up your vegetables into small pieces.

• Start heating the pot on medium heat.
• Throw in the onions and cook then until they are transparent.

I slightly toasted (burned) my garlic by accident. It still tasted good god damnit!

• Add the ground beef and cook until browned.

• Once the meat is cooked add the jar of Classico sauce and stir well.
• Add the can of tomatoes and all the other vegetables.

• Add the shot of V8.
• Throw in a stick of cinnamon.
• Add the Italian herbs
• Salt and pepper to taste.

Then let it all cook and stir occasionally until the carrots are tender. This recipe does 4-5 full servings so it should last you a week. You can also store it in small plastic containers and freeze it. Then, when you're not feeling like cooking you just take it out one day ahead and let it thaw in the refrigerator and you'll have a meal all ready, except for the pasta but, that's pretty damn easy to make. If you don't know how to cook pasta, leave me a comment and I will insult your intelligence in the best way possible.

Add some Parmesan and you're all set.