Pasta sauce is so readily available in those bottles you find at the grocery stores. But they taste so bland, at least for me. I don’t want to make my own from scratch because, let’s face it, that many tomatoes can drive up the grocery bills pretty quickly. Here’s what I do with mine.
Preparation:
(serves 2 people *who like lots of sauce in their pasta 
*)
- 1/2-1/3 bottle your favorite pasta sauce
- 1-2 tomatoes (diced)
- 1 red onion (diced)
- 1/2 green pepper (diced)
- handful of baby spinach leaves (cut)
- 1-2 garlic cloves (diced) or 1 tsp of garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp of red chili powder
- dried oregano
- dried parsley
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 tbsp ketchup
- salt to taste
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Cooking:
- In a heated pan, cook the diced onions in the olive oil until soft.
- Add and cook the diced green peppers, about 1-2 minutes.
- Add in the diced tomatoes and garlic (powder). Cook until the tomatoes are a bit mushy.
- Add the cut baby spinach leaves and allow the leaves to welt.
- Once all the fresh ingredients are cooked, add the pasta sauce and mix well.
- Add the oregano, parsley, red chili powder, sugar, ketchup, and salt; cook for about 10 minutes on low heat to let all the flavors blend together.
And that’s it, you’re done! The whole thing should take less than 30 minutes and you get great tasting pasta sauce. In case you are wondering, the sugar and ketchup get rid of the sour taste of the tomatoes. It was a trick I learned from a college friend, back in the day. 
It really works!
- ASH
