Quick and Easy Pasta Sauce

Some nights I really want a good, healthy meal, but I don’t want to do a lot of work. Doctoring up a jar of store bought pasta sauce is such an easy way to get a meal on the table quickly, without sacrificing quality. It’s also a great way to clean out your produce drawer! Finely grating the vegetables helps them to melt right into the sauce. This is a great trick for helping picky eaters too!

I also made a new “parmesan cheese” tonight. I found a recipe on the Lunchbox Bunch, but, as much as I like nutritional yeast, her combo was a little strong for my taste. I’m so glad I tried this idea though, because my tweaks made this combo a perfect balance for my tastes. The best part about this “cheese” is that David thinks it’s called “Carma John.” Kind of tempting to just call it that since it isn’t actually parmesan either ?

UPDATE: I made a recipe for my own parmesan sprinkles!  Two actually!  Get the recipes here —> nut based and nut free.

Feel free to mix and match as your fridge allows—no need to go buy a whole bunch of ingredients—that’s the whole point! Hope you enjoy this as much as we do—I’m so looking forward to leftovers for lunch tomorrow!

Print Recipe

Quick and Easy Pasta Sauce

Doctoring up a jar of store bought pasta sauce is such an easy way to get a healthy meal on the table quickly, without sacrificing quality.

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Total Time30 minutes mins

Course: Pasta Sauce

Cuisine: Italian

Author: Sarah De la Cruz

Ingredients

• 1 jar store bought pasta sauce
• 1 T olive oil
• 1-2 large carrots finely grated on a box grater
• 1-2 small zucchinis finely grated on a box grater
• 2 Field Roast Italian sausages or other veggie sausage (optional), cut into small pieces
• 2 T capers
• 10 green olives
• 10 kalamata olives
• ¼ t garlic powder
• 1 t onion powder
• 1 T vinegar—champagne or balsamic
• 1 pound whole wheat spaghetti

Instructions

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt and add pasta. Cook according to package directions.
• Meanwhile, heat olive oil over medium heat in a large sauté pan. Add sausages to pan and heat through. Add capers, carrots and zucchinis and let the vegetables cook down a little. Add the onion powder, garlic powder, and olives. Mix well.
• Once all veggies have had a chance to cook down a bit, add the marinara sauce. Add vinegar and mix well.
• When pasta is finished cooking, add to the pan with the sauce and mix well (be patient so that you can really mix everything in well).
• Top with parmesan cheese!