Comfort-food Spaghetti

Okay, this is SO not home-made. But it is the sauce that my children want when they want spaghetti. So don’t judge me. We all do things when our children are small (i.e. when we have been sleep-deprived for 7 years) that we aren't necessarily proud of.

1 lb. ground beef (the leaner it is, the less you’ll have to drain)
1 jar of Barilla Roasted Garlic Tomato Sauce. (Yes. That specific.)
1 can of LaRosa’s Original Sauce (If you’re not in Cincinnati, you’re out of luck. Sorry. You can skip this post.)
1/2 to 1 lb spaghetti pasta

Fill a 2- or 3-quart pot with hot water, salt it, and bring it to a boil. Break your spaghetti noodles in half and put them in to cook. I usually only make 1/2 lb. or less, because I like a lot of sauce, and because G-man can't eat a lot of pasta anymore. (Read the box for how long this should take. They’re all similar.)

If you're okay with multi-tasking, you can start the beef while the water is coming to a boil and before you add the pasta. Cook the ground beef in a large skillet. Break it up, cook it completely, and remove the pan from the heat to drain off the grease. Get as much as you can. Use paper towels to sop up as much as possible. 

Then dump in both sauces, and mix it up well. Turn the heat back on and bring the sauce to just boiling, then set it to simmer. That is all there is to it. No extra spices, vegetables, nothing. Of course you CAN put those things in, but in general I don’t bother with it. It would be nice to add in sauteed zucchini or mushrooms, extra diced tomatoes, these are yummy. If your kids are fussy, doing this instantly transforms this dish to poison.

When the spaghetti is cooked, drain it well. A colander is great for this, because you can dump the spaghetti in and leave it, the colander can sit on the pan and drain, everyone’s happy. If it sticks to itself, rinse it with hot water. I’ve heard to put olive oil on it (and I’ve tried it, it was okay), which you CAN do, but hot water is free(ish), and olive oil prevents your sauce from sticking to the pasta.

I plate this at the stove, serve it with garlic bread and grated parmesan cheese, and now that G-man has diabetes we also serve a big salad.