So being the good Jewish girl that I am, I do know how to make an awesome homemade pasta sauce.

You thought I was gonna say Lo Mein or something, didn’t you?  I’m an anomaly to that stereotype, I actually hate most Chinese food.  The doughnuts though?  Could eat them all day.

I’m pretty much an Italian trapped in a Jewish lady’s body.  I could eat pasta daily.  Every shape, size, color, form, etc. Gimme it.

Because of that I do know how to make a pretty awesome pasta sauce.  But it takes FOREVER….. You have to cook down the veggies, develop all the flavors and let it simmer and cook and….yeah.  I mean, it’s amazing.  But it takes all day to make it completely from scratch.

So I’ve gotten really good at doing a “semi-homemade” version where you just sort of jazz up a bottle of sauce.  I mean, yeah, by themselves, some bottles are actually really flavorful these days.  But, I love meat sauce and so few of them have really good quality meat in there and have a depth of flavor.  I love a really hearty, chunky sauce and you can’t get that from a bottle.  And of course, we love heat and spice in our house, and so few are hot and spicy so you have to up the ante with bottles.

You can get a good base out of a bottle, though, which is what I go for in this quick version. You can use any good bottled sauce that you enjoy.  I used a basil and garlic based sauce here, but I’ve used meat flavored and cheese flavored before, too.  There is some freshness brought back by using some fresh herbs and veggies and the heartiness from the meat additions.  So, in about 30-40 minutes, you can get a really good pasta sauce that you didn’t spend all day cooking.