The simplest meal to make as a college student using as little time and money as possible is pasta with tomato sauce. What’s easier than microwaving some rigatoni and throwing some sauce over it? No matter what anyone says though, normal tomato sauce can get old, fast. Here are five ways to add some zest to the traditional tomato sauce, and wake up those bored taste buds.
1. Vodka Sauce
Photo by Judy Holtz
In addition to the usual pasta and sauce, you can almost always find some vodka in a college student’s fridge. Mix these all together with some heavy cream and grated Parmesan to get a yummy vodka sauce. Follow Giada De Laurentiis’ recipe here.
2. Mushroom Sauce
Photo by Judy Holtz
This sauce is perfect for you if you’re feeling like dining hall salads just aren’t cutting it, or if you aren’t getting enough veggies in. In this recipe, chop up some onions and mushrooms and throw them into your sauce to give your meal some added texture.
3. Arrabiata Sauce
Photo Courtesy of Kate Terr Harr; Flickr Creative Commons
If you’re in the mood for a little spice and want to kick your sauce up a notch, sizzle some red pepper flakes and jalapeños in oil then add them to your sauce before topping off your pasta. This will definitely make your sauce more interesting and hotter. Get the recipe here.
4. Onion and Butter Sauce
Photo by Clark Halpern
This sauce may be Marcella Hazan’s (a renowned cookbook author who showed people the traditional techniques of Italian cooking) most elementary and effortless recipe yet. With just three ingredients, toss the store-bought tomato sauce aside and use canned or real tomatoes instead. Here’s the recipe to follow.
5. Authentic Sicilian Pasta Sauce
Photo courtesy of Parsa Lotfi.
It can be hard to feel like you are eating anything truly authentic at school. If you have a little extra time and want to kick the pre-made sauce out completely in order to cook up a true Italian sauce, follow Nina Listro’s family’s sauce recipe which has been passed down from generation to generation for decades.
Check out these other pasta sauce articles too: