My mother is a born and raised New Yorker, so spaghetti was a regular weeknight dinner for me growing up. When I went off to college, she finally viewed me as worthy enough to give the family spaghetti sauce recipe to me so I could make it at school. All of my new friends were shocked that I was willing to make homemade spaghetti sauce in my dorm room, and I was shocked as to why they weren’t.
Sauce is a religion to me, you see, and because of that, I pray regularly to the pasta gods. Homemade spaghetti sauce is a go-to comfort food that I believe we should all eat more of. Though I was sworn to secrecy when I was given my family’s recipe, here are my reasons as to why you should make your own sauce:
1) It is EASY to make
Some sauces can be less than 10 ingredients. Once you have the meat (optional, of course) and peppers cooked, it is just tomatoes and the other items mingling together for hours.
2) You can make it in a slow cooker
Crock pots are my favorite things that men have ever invented. At school, I make my sauce in my dad’s old crock pot from the 80’s. Again, once those ingredients are sauteed up, throw them in with some tomatoes, turn the cooker on low and go to your classes knowing the sauce will be waiting for you when you get back!
3) LEFTOVERS
Spaghetti sauce only gets better with age. You can eat on sauce for dayzz and it will just taste better. You can take spaghetti to lunch, eat it for dinner over the weekend when the cafeteria food sucks, or at the end of the year when you’re out of meal swipes. Also, spaghetti sauce can be used as dipping sauce for breadsticks, or as sauce on pizza!
4) You can freeze it
Spaghetti sauce is perfect to freeze so you can have in a month or two. You are naturally going to make more than you can eat in one sitting (challenge accepted), so put half of the sauce in freezer bags and save it for later! Spaghetti is a great comfort food for finals and when you are too busy cramming to go get dinner, so freeze it until then!
5) It is CHEAP
Spaghetti, contrary to common belief, is not some intricate $30 Italian delicacy. A basic sauce is super cheap. Canned tomatoes, a pepper, an onion, and garlic are all relatively cheap items at a grocery store. Pasta is not an expensive item either, so all in all you are paying around $20 dollars for multiple nights of dinner. In that case, kick your meal plan and eat spaghetti all semester!
I am obsessed with all shapes, styles, and forms of pasta so I will always advocate for homemade sauce. Jarred sauce is fine and can provide you with some funky flavors to try, but economically and traditionally, homemade spaghetti sauce is where it’s at. Ask your family for their recipe, or just find a sauce recipe you like, throw it in the crock pot and enjoy yummy sauce you made yourself!