Easy Pasta Supper - A Five Ingredients or Less Recipe

A simple, easy and nutritious weekday meal is pasta and kids love it too!  As much as I would love to have a nice slow cooked sauce it isn’t exactly practical when I need to get dinner on the table after work.  I try to make my weeknight meal prep last no longer than 30 minutes and this fits the bill just fine. 

Spaghetti Sauce 

½ to 1 pound lean bulk Italian pork or turkey sausage

1 26 oz. can garlic and herb spaghetti sauce

1 15 oz. can Italian style diced tomatoes

1 tsp. dried basil 

1 pound pasta – spaghetti, linguine, fettucine, rotini, or penne 

Start by filling a large pot with salted water and bringing it to a boil.

While you wait for the water to boil use a medium sized pot over medium high heat to brown the sausage.  Drain any fat and add sauce, tomatoes and basil.  Stir to combine, reduce heat and allow it to simmer while pasta cooks about 8 minutes or until tender. 

While the pasta finishes prepare a quick salad or vegetable as a side while someone else sets the table and gets everyone a drink. 

This recipes is more than plenty for four people and can be doubled to accommodate additional servings and for extra leftovers. 

The reason I use the spaghetti sauce rather than to make my own is because a certain brand (Hunts) goes on sale quite regularly for much less than what the equivalent in tomato sauce would cost.  I also stock up on the tomatoes and pasta when they go on sale as well.  Tomato sauce doesn’t seem to go on sale very often and when it does it is only for a few cents per can, not a huge savings.

Thrifty Tip:  Before making this recipe remove ½ c. sauce from the can of spaghetti sauce to a small freezer container and save for a future pizza.  I do this all the time.  You can also sneak ½ cup of the browned sausage out of the pan and do the same thing to add as one of the toppings on your future pizza.