Any Tips on Perfect Spegetti

I love Spaghetti and how we make it is we brown the meat and put onion and garlic in it with some salt and pepper. We use Newman's Own garlic Tomato Spaghetti Sauce (in jars in the spaghetti Isle). Newman's has all different flavors but we use that one. Mix all together and when you serve it serve with the spaghetti noodles and top with sauce. If you mix the two together than serve there is a different taste to it.

Sometimes we use parmasam cheese on it.

N.

We always put pepperoni in our spaghetti sauce. Yum. I had to laugh at Rachel's answer; I vividly remember my mom throwing a noodle at the kitchen cabinet. If it stuck, the pasta was ready!

Generally, paste will thicken the sauce up, but I don't like it, because of its taste, and I usually only use a tablespoon or two when using it at all.

I often make sauce from scratch. I don't know how it compares to others, but I get 2 thumbs up from our family. :)
Spaghetti Sauce
1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
1 can (15 oz) crushed tomatoes
1 heaping T minced garlic
1/2 cup to 1 cup minced onion
1/2 cup to 1 cup minced sweet pepper (green or red/yellow/orange)
1 to 2 T olive oil
3-4 T italian seasoning (or you can the spaghetti seasoning packet from the store, but this usually has a lot of salt)
1/2 to 1 tsp sweet paprika

1 bay leaf, optional
1 cup frozen chopped spinach, optional

If you're going meatless (as above), saute garlic, onlons & peppers in olive oil for about 5 minutes, or longer, depending on how crunchy and/or carmelized you want the garlic, over medium high heat.

If you're using ground beef, skip the olive oil. Instead, cook the pepper, onions and garlic in with the meat over medium high until the meat is done. Once the meat is done, I spread all the meat mixture onto a plate covered with paper towels and blot off as much of the fat as I can. I also wipe out the pan, to remove excess oil.

Put the meat mixture back in the pan and add the rest of the ingredients. Simmer, uncovered for 10 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove bay leaf and serve over pasta.

For the pasta, we've switched over to all whole wheat pasta, because it's healthier. It tends to end up more "al dente" even when fully cooked. But it's yummy.

You can check out http://allrecipes.com for good recipes--generally, choose recipes that are reviewed by a lot of people and have at least 4 stars. I've never yet made a recipe from that site (a recipe that was well reviewed) that we didn't like.

2 Italian secrets... one, pasta is done when it sticks to the wall! Two, always keep about 1/4 cup of the water the pasta was cooked in and stir it into your sauce.

Yeah I hate tomato sauce, but if I had a dollar for every time I heard that from my grandmother... I'd be rich ;)

we use 1 can tomato paste, 1 can tomato sauce, 1 pound of hamburger, and 1 package of Lawry's spaghetti seasoning. And you have to mix it all in with the noodles, not put it on top.
My mom always made it this way and its the only way I like it. It makes "sticky" spaghetti. Meaning the sauce really sticks to the noodles! YUM YUM!

I guess I'm lazy! I have never done anything other than open up a jar of Prego and heat it up!
I am, however, now extremely hungry for pasta and ready to experiment!

I always add a squirt or two of ketchup to the sauce. I like my sauce with a touch of sweet. I also put a teaspoon or two of chili powder. It makes the perfect spicy/sweet little something to the sauce. It's awesome!

Well, I'm of the opinion that spaghetti is one of those $2 dinners that stretch the budget. You can buy a perfectly decent jar of sauce for $1 at the store, that already has some seasoning to it. I buy that and add garlic, mushrooms, and meat and call it dinner. My mom used to buy a couple cans of tomatoe sauce and a can of tomatoe paste and add dried Italien seasoning and ground beef. But it wasn't very flavorful and costs closer to $3. Technically homemade, but not very tasty. Sorry mom.

My husband, on the other hand, likes to make a $12 version that is good, but defeats the purpose of saving money! He buys a lb of ground italian sausage, a lb of ground beef, a lb of fresh mushrooms, fresh onions and tomatoes, and a package of fresh Oregeno. All to go on only 1 lb of pasta! The sausage and fresh oregeno make a HUGE differance in the flavor. Really good. But really expensive.

I found that I like mine with ground Turkey instead of hamburger and then if I add some (not all) sauce to the pasta and then keep it on the heat and stir it in, that helps with making the sauce stick to the pasta....then I take it off the heat and add the rest of the sauce.

Spaghetti is SO cheap and delicious...I admit I use jar sauce then add my own extra seasonings to spice it up just a little and I like thin spaghetti and olives!

use crushed tomatoes instead of tomato paste or sauce, add Italian seasoning and garlic, and bay leaf. I use 1/2 hamburger and 1/2 Italian sausage cooked with onion and garlic add mushrooms and olives. Sometimes I add mozzarella or Romano cheese to the sauce to thicken it up.

I'm not a huge fan of spaghetti- it was my younger sister's favorite and we ate it growing up a ton. My grandpa and mom make the sauce by his recipe- which is brown the ground beef add is some diced onion and green pepper, add a can of tomato sauce and one small can of paste, add Italian seasoning and little bit of brown sugar and Worchestershire sauce. It makes a sweeter sauce and kids really like.
I, however, am lazy. I brown off my meat, throw in diced onions, peppers and sliced mushrooms, add a jar of reduced sugar Ragu sauce, sprinkle in a little extra basil, oregano and garlic and there it is.

Here's one my mom makes for my (Italian) dad and he doesn't complain. I've passed it off as "homemade" to my family as well ; )

3-4 links Italian sausage (I use mild for kids), casing removed...brown in about a tsp of olive oil if not using non-stick pan, breaking up into chunks as it browns

When sausage is browned, add 1 jar Classico Four Cheese sauce (sorry Grandma--I can picture what she would say if she read this!). Stir over medium heat until it bubbles, then simmer low for 30-45 minutes. Add a few spoonfuls of water as needed to keep sauce from boiling down too thick, but don't over do the water...

My mom stirs in a tablespoon of real butter before serving; I grate Parmesan cheese into mine.

It's important to use good sausage and cheese in a "cheating" recipe like this ; ) but honestly my family likes it almost as much as the all-day recipe I make too... And by the way, good for you for even cooking at home! I don't always have time, but I know my family really appreciates it.

Do you drain the meat,if not a good idea to do so.My husband adds a touch of sugar to the sauce while it is cooking to take the bite out of it,tomato paste thickens the sauce up which I do like,noodles after they are cooked put them in the strainer then rinse with cold water to take off the starch then return to bowl or whatever you put them in I add in a dab of butter to help further from them sticking together but I also stir in the butter as it is melting to coat the noodles.

Shortly after I got married, 36 years ago, I got the Joy of Cooking Cookbook. I followed the receipe in it the first couple of time is made the sauce and then started experimenting by adding and substracting ingedients. A really good cook will follow a receipe while they are learning then with experience begin to experiment. After you have been making spaggetti sauce for a while try reading several different receipes and incorporate some other ingedients as a trial receipe. Some people love mushrooms, some don't, I don't notice a difference. I like a little celery in my sauce along with green pepper and onion. Spaggetti sauce is a regional dish, if you know someone who's hertiage is from southern Italy their receipe will be quite different than someone from northern Italy, but both are good, it's a matter of taste.

Don't boil it for too long, usually 8 to 10 minutes is good for spaghetti noodles. It helps to salt the boiling water just before the pasta goes in, both to season the pasta and to keep it from sticking together. Drain it right away, but save a little of the pasta water in case you need it for the sauce. Then, toss the noodles with a little bit of olive oil. For the sauce, it depends on your preferences. There are so many different recipes for pasta sauce! Do you like it with or without meat? Light, or thick and chunky? Check out allrecipes.com for some ideas to get you started; I like this site because there are always reviews from other home cooks that can help you tweak the recipe to your liking. As you experiment, make sure you write everything down so that you can do it again if it turns out good.