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Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Weeknight red sauce


Yeah yeah, I said sauce. In the sauce vs. gravy war, I am staunchly sauce. To me, gravy is brown.

Like a lot of people, I like to linger over a pot of sauce all day, stirring here and there, tasting, adding, etc. But sometimes you need a quick red sauce and this is a winner without using jarred, I'm telling you.

Ingredients
28 oz crushed tomatoes
8 oz tomato sauce
4 tbs butter
1 medium yellow onion, peeled and halved
Salt & pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning

Directions
Put the tomatoes, sauce, onion and butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Bring the sauce to a simmer. Add seasonings and stir well. Lower the heat to keep the sauce at a slow, steady simmer for 15-20 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Remove from heat, discard the onion, and mix with your prepared pasta or spaghetti squash or wherever you're using it.

Inquiring minds want to know: sauce or gravy?

25 comments:

  1. I've never made a homemade sauce -might be time to try! xo, Biana -BlovedBoston

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  2. Sauce. I'm the boss. Applesauce.
    Enjoy this balmy March 1!
    Happy birthday month. Wee-0 4-0❣️❣️
    Love. Your. Momma.

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  3. My 93 year old off the boat Italian grandma called it sauce so therefore, it is sauce. I never knew people called sauce gravy until I was older. Gravy is brown.

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  4. I'm all sauce too, Your'e right gravy is brown. Home made is so easy it's ridiculous. That pic of your bowl has been a go to for me for years. I buy 6 or 12 packs of canned crushed tomatoes at Costco so I always have a stock pile in my pantry!

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  5. Yum!! My carb-deprived self is drooling over this pasta goodness!

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  6. I much prefer my homemade sauce to jar!! I usually do it in a crockpot over the day and it's so easy to throw together.

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  7. I always say sauce but then when my dad puts it on bread with cheese, we've always called that gravy bread. So I'm a conundrum I guess. Homemade sauce is so much better, jar sauce is SO sugary, I can't stand it. I love a good weeknight recipe!

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  8. Whoa whoa whoa... Some people call spaghetti sauce "gravy"? I've never heard that... Gravy is for mashed potatoes and turkey and roast and, when mixed with sausage, biscuits. Sauce is for pasta. Odd...
    Also, I've never made my own red sauce but this sounds yummy! And now I want spaghetti...

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  9. WAIT there are people who call spaghetti sauce gravy? Like, spaghetti and gravy? No.

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  10. I'm definitely a sauce girl. The first time someone referred to red sauce as gravy, I had no idea what they were talking about, because spaghetti sauce is red and gravy is brown! This looks like a great recipe. Pinned!

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  11. wtf! i didn't even know there was a sauce vs gravy thing. how can there be? gravy is brown, end of story. jeepers. (i know gravy can also be white and that freaked me out the first time i asked for gravy and it wasn't brown).
    okay, lazy confession, i have never made my own pasta sauce. my absolute fave is from trader joes and it's creamy (but not alfredo, it's a red sauce) and i want to start trying to make my own because they run out often and the sodium is like crazy high.
    but i am pinning this and i'm gonna try it.

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  12. Yum!!! I absolutely love homemade sauce!

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  13. I've always said sauce, and always heard people say sauce. I live in the Southern USA...maybe it's a regional thing? I also say "soda", not "pop".

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  14. Red gravy over here, but that is a New Orleans thing! I had this with Turkey meatballs last night and now I want some more!

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  15. It IS sauce!! haha I go crazy when people call it gravy.

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  16. Ummm... YES!!!! That sounds amazing. I bet the butter in it gives it the extra flavor!

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  17. Sauce.

    Mine is similar except no butter or onions and I add balsamic vinegar.

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  18. definitely sauce! I'm totally craving pasta after that photo.

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  19. YUM! And couldn't agree with you more that this is sauce and gravy is that brown stuff we put on turkey at Thanksgiving :)

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  20. Yum! This sounds so delicious and easy as well, which is why it's a week night sauce right!

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  21. Yum, now I want pasta!

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  22. Sauce. Just no with the gravy. I equate it to when people call stuffing, dressing.

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  23. I love new recipes for "Gravy ". I'm going to try this. Is it acidity ? Do you add a little of something to draw the acid from it ?

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  24. My family are Italian Americans. We grew up calling it Gravy! Lol. Some say it's a South Philly thing, idk. My whole family is from there. Grandparents off the boat from Italy. They always said it was Gravy when cooked with meat, and sauce if jarred or no meat .. tomato tamato- lol. Truthfully it's just preference.

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