So, who cheats?
What I mean is, who has a recipe involving off-the-shelf goods that ends up being fast and easy, and tastes 90% as good as doing everything from scratch?
Just wondering, because I've done two batches of spaghetti sauce in the past week that were using Prego as a base and doctoring them up heavily. A hundred times easier than starting with tomato sauce, tomato paste and diced tomatos, but tastes pretty darn good when you get done.
What I did:
Dumped into a big pot one supersize plastic jar of Prego sauce.
In a food processor, diced up a cup or so each (depending on the desired taste) of celery, carrots and onions, and two+ cups of mushrooms.
Sauteed the veggies in a big pan or wok in olive oil, until carrots are soft and onions are transparent.
Added to the pot with the sauce in it. Added chopped up parsley, lots of basil, some oregano, some black pepper to taste. Added a half cup of olive oil (skip if you don't want the calories) and a cup of white wine. Started to simmer and walked away - I let it cook for about 40 minutes or so. Added some salt to taste.
Tastes 85% as good as doing it from scratch, and takes about 25% of the time, with less mess as well. If you're really stingy, you can sautee the veggies in the same pot you cook the sauce in, which brings the total washable items down to the food processor, a knife, a cup measure, a stirring spoon, and a big pot.
Anyone else?
What I mean is, who has a recipe involving off-the-shelf goods that ends up being fast and easy, and tastes 90% as good as doing everything from scratch?
Just wondering, because I've done two batches of spaghetti sauce in the past week that were using Prego as a base and doctoring them up heavily. A hundred times easier than starting with tomato sauce, tomato paste and diced tomatos, but tastes pretty darn good when you get done.
What I did:
Dumped into a big pot one supersize plastic jar of Prego sauce.
In a food processor, diced up a cup or so each (depending on the desired taste) of celery, carrots and onions, and two+ cups of mushrooms.
Sauteed the veggies in a big pan or wok in olive oil, until carrots are soft and onions are transparent.
Added to the pot with the sauce in it. Added chopped up parsley, lots of basil, some oregano, some black pepper to taste. Added a half cup of olive oil (skip if you don't want the calories) and a cup of white wine. Started to simmer and walked away - I let it cook for about 40 minutes or so. Added some salt to taste.
Tastes 85% as good as doing it from scratch, and takes about 25% of the time, with less mess as well. If you're really stingy, you can sautee the veggies in the same pot you cook the sauce in, which brings the total washable items down to the food processor, a knife, a cup measure, a stirring spoon, and a big pot.
Anyone else?
:evil: 
