Everybody, and especially their Grandmother, has a spaghetti sauce recipe that “you just have to try.” But like everything else in life….. it’s a matter of personal taste. So, try this!
Prep time: 90 minutes
Ingredients:
2 14.5-oz. cans of crushed tomatoes
1 6-oz. can of tomato paste
2 cloves garlic, diced
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
1 medium red bell pepper, chopped
1 c. broccoli, chopped into florets
2 tbsp. olive oil or vegetable oil
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried basil
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. thyme
1/2 lb. spicy Italian sausage (optional)
Directions:
Heat oil over medium-high heat in a pan.
Add garlic and onion and cook until the onion is translucent (more clear than white).
Add peppers and broccoli and sauté for a few minutes.
Add crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, and spices. When mixture is bubbling, reduce heat to simmer and cover. Simmer for at least 60 minutes, stirring occasionally. The longer it simmers, the better it tastes.
Serves: 5
Serving size: 3/4 c.
Nutritional analysis (per serving):
175 calories
6 g protein
6 g fat 29 g carbohydrate 6 g fiber 0 mg cholesterol 253 mg sodium 90 mg calcium 3.5 mg iron
Note: Nutritional analysis may vary depending on ingredient brands used.
Suggestions:
If you want to make your spaghetti sauce with meat, begin by boiling the sausage in a large pot. Boil for about 5 minutes, until fat has collected on top of the water. Drain water. Drain fat by running hot water and pouring the fat down the sink. Set sausage aside in a bowl or dish. Complete Steps 1 through 3. Slice and add the sausage before you cover the pan in Step 4.
Try substituting chicken or turkey sausage - lots of taste with less fat.
Experiment with other veggies - eggplant, squash, or zucchini are all delicious additions.
Be daring with spices. The amounts and spices listed here are only recommendations.
Be sure to freeze any leftover sauce - some say it actually tastes even better after it’s been frozen!
How do companies figure out what consumers want? For example, when you look at all the different types of spaghetti sauce in the grocery store, do you wonder how the endless varieties were developed? In many cases, the companies may have just guessed, but they also may have used methods developed by Howard Moskowitz, an expert in the field of psychophysics, and author of the upcoming book Selling Blue Elephants. …..HUH?
Let me explain…..
In 1986, Howard Moskowitz got a call from the Campbell’s Soup Company. They were in the spaghetti-sauce business, going up against Ragú with their Prego brand. Prego was a little thicker than Ragú, with diced tomatoes as opposed to Ragú’s purée, and, Campbell’s thought, had better pasta adherence. But, for all that, Prego was in a slump, and Campbell’s was desperate for new ideas….Howard to the rescue!
Standard practice in the food industry would have been to convene a focus group and ask spaghetti sauce eaters what they wanted. But Moskowitz does not believe that consumers—even spaghetti lovers—know what they desire if what they desire does not yet exist. Makes sense right?
“The mind,” as Moskowitz is fond of saying, “knows not what the tongue wants.” Instead, working with the Campbell’s kitchens, he came up with forty-five varieties of spaghetti sauce. These were designed to differ in every conceivable way: spiciness, sweetness, tartness, saltiness, thickness, aroma, mouth feel, cost of ingredients, and so forth. He had a trained panel of food tasters analyze each of those varieties in depth. Then he took the prototypes on the road—to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Jacksonville—and asked people in groups of twenty-five to eat between eight and ten small bowls of different spaghetti sauces over two hours and rate them on a scale of one to a hundred.
When Moskowitz charted the results, he saw that everyone had a slightly different definition of what a perfect spaghetti sauce tasted like. If you sifted carefully through the data, though, you could find patterns, and Moskowitz learned that most people’s preferences fell into one of three broad groups: plain, spicy, and extra-chunky, and of those three the last was the most important. Why? Because at the time there was no extra-chunky spaghetti sauce in the supermarket. WOW!
Over the next decade, that new category proved to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Prego. “We all said, ‘Wow!’ ” Monica Wood, who was then the head of market research for Campbell’s, recalls. “Here there was this third segment—people who liked their spaghetti sauce with lots of stuff in it—and it was completely untapped. So in about 1989-90 we launched Prego extra-chunky. It was extraordinarily successful.” In fact, over the next 10 years, the company made over $600 million dollars off their line of “extra chunky” sauces!
HERE IS A VIDEO WITH MALCOLM GLADWELL’S VERSION OF THE STORY
Oh, by the way, Howard Moskowitz is also the brains behind the success of Grey Poupon mustard….quite a guy!
Spaghetti is a long, thin form of pasta. It is versatile, popular, and available throughout the Western World. Most spaghetti sold and consumed is commercially prepared, then dried by boiling the pasta with salt in water until soft. Many believe that spaghetti originated in China with some now asserting that the Arabs who populated Southern Italy (around the 12th Century) were the first to develop the innovation of working pasta from grain into thin long forms.Now, that is a brief history of spaghetti, but can anyone tell me where and when it was served covered with what we now call “spaghetti sauce?”
In the beginning there was the tomato!An emblem of Italian cuisine is spaghetti that is served in tomato sauce, which may contain various herbs (especially oregano and basil), olive oil, meat, or vegetables. The tomato has been central to Italian cuisine since its introduction from the Americas. Tomato sauce was an ancient condiment in Aztec Indian food. The first person to write of what may have been a tomato sauce was Bernardino de Sahagún who made note of a prepared sauce that was offered for sale in the markets of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City today). Then, Spaniards brought the use of tomato to Europe.Fast forward to today…… Marinara is a US-American-Italian term for a simple tomato sauce with herbs—mostly parsley and basil—but, contrary to its name (which is Italian for coastal, seafaring) without anchovies, fish or seafood. In countries other than the United States, however, marinara refers to a seafood and tomato sauce.American supermarkets commonly carry a variety of prepared tomato sauces described as “spaghetti sauce”. Common variations include meat sauce, marinara sauce and sauces with mushrooms or sweet red peppers
Stay tuned for our next article on thefather of modern spaghetti sauce, Howard Moskowitz!
1lb package (20oz.)Sweet Ital. sausage
1 medium red or yellow onion
1 28oz can of Tomato Sauce
1 6oz can of Tomato Paste
1 lb box of Rigatoni pasta
1 Bay leaf
1 tsp Italian Seasonings
1/2 tsp Rosemary (dry)
1/2 tsp Thyme, dried
1/2 tsp Basil, dried
1-2 Garlic cloves, minced
pinch of salt&pepper
Dash of Garlic salt
1/2 lb package of Baby carrots
1 Tbsp Olive oil
1. Pour olive oil in a large pan or stockpot and brown sausage on both sides. Cut sausage in half and add Tomato sauce and Tomato paste; blend together.
2. Turn heat to low and add all spices; stir into sauce. Peel onion and cut off each end. Then cut across one end of the onion for absorbing the sauce. Place in the middle of pan, spoon sauce over the top.
3. Lastly, add the baby carrots and simmer on low, stirring 2-3 times, for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Cook Rigatoni according to directions on package.
4. Add pasta to sauce when all is done. Don’t forget to bake some garlic bread to top it all off!
In a large pot, heat the garlic in EVOO (extra virgin olive oil), and then add the tomato sauce and tomatos. Now slowly mix in the cream. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Grate in the baby carrots, and cook slowly, otherwise the sauce will burn. 3-5 hours.
Add parmigiano reggiano to taste. Slowly stir. A SpaghettiSauce.com exclusive, enjoy!
