Ground pork seasoned spicy style. A can of crushed tomatoes seasoned as well. OTC garlic knots from Aldi.
When I was growing up our mom would ask us if we wanted Italian spaghetti or American spaghetti. The difference was pork versus beef.
Buying spicy sausage has become problematic because why does every brand of Italian sausage contain sugar? Anyway with a well stocked spice cabinet you can turn cheap ground pork into awesomeness.
And seasoning a can of crushed tomatoes offers exactly the same no sugar added return with way more flavor than a jar can provide.
Spicy Italian Sausage
1 pound ground pork.
1/2 teaspoon salt.
1/4 pinch garlic powder.
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper.
2 1/5 teaspoons ground paprika.
1/4 teaspoon anise seed.
1/4 teaspoon fennel seed.
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes.
1 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- add all to a bowl.
- mix until everything is completely integrated.
- use fresh or freeze 1/4 lb per zip locking snack bag.
The sauce? I don't have exact measurements on. But it's mostly the same stuff except the paprika and cayenne. Maybe the amounts are different. But just wing it.
How much pasta? Just half a box. But cook the whole box. Save half of it in a container with 2 tbsp of butter. That will be a meal later this week.
Cost per person: $3
our simple sauce is: canned unseasoned tomato sauce of your favorite brand (i'm trying to get my hands on some passata to use for special occasions, the recipe will adapt to that once we can try it), oregano, basil, (red, black, white, pick one or two) pepper, salt, garlic, little bit of aniseed, ground beef or pork, most everything to taste. cook the meat with the pepper and the herbs, put the salt in with the pasta water, add a ladle full of the pasta water to the sauce to help it bind to the noodles better.
my wife adds onions, my mother adds some sugar, I've been deglazing the pan after the meat's done with a splash of red wine, we've all got our variations but that's basically the general form of my grandfather's lazy red sauce. when i was in college, i'd add only like two tablespoons of meat and it'd be more like a seasoning. now we can have a little more protein.
I was thinking more basic. Paste tomatoes, salt, small bit of garlic, pinch of red pepper flakes, some lemon juice near the end. The kind of sauce you'd use with shrimp and angel hair.
technically we have a lemon butter sauce we do with angel hair and shrimp but i like the way you think