Sep 27 2009
Spice Up That Ready Made Marinara Sauce
Let’s face it, most store bought pasta sauces suck. Most of them are made with inexpensive ingredients and are meant to sell merely by sitting on the store shelves with fancy packaging. What’s worse is that many of you busy moms and dads must rely on these terrible, ready made products as a time replacement to good old fashion homemade cooking. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to get around this is, but the least we can do is make these sauces taste better. Here’s a hand full of ingredients that I recommend for you to spice up a much better marinara sauce.
- Basil and onions: It’s a save bet that almost all of these store bought sauces could use some extra basil and onions. They’re the basis for many pasta dishes and can make a huge difference when doctoring a sauce.
- Meat: While the vegetarians won’t like this one, any meat’s natural flavors will cook and meld well with all marinara sauces whether it’s ground beef or chicken. Also, the way you personally season your meat will do a lot to bring out the flavor of the sauce as well.
- Ground Pepper: This one is a simple seasoning for most people. Commercial food products often have plenty of sodium in them (if not way to much) which can be seen in most product food labels. Adding some grounded pepper can help balance this out a bit.
- Parsley: Parsley is an herb found in many Middle European dishes and can generally goes well with pasta.
- Bell Peppers: Regardless of the specific color type, a little chopped bell pepper can add some flavor to a sauce without the extra spice.
- Jalapeño and Red Pepper Flakes: For those who like things spicy hot, add either of these to make your taste buds hate you later.
There are a number of other ingredients you could use to improve a ready made pasta sauce. Mushrooms, garlic, various peppers and herbs are great options that I find others like. Ultimately, it’s best just to experiment here. This stuff comes out of a jar, if you mess it up just pour more out and try again. If you have your own way of spicing up pasta sauces I’d love to hear about it.