Lately, I have been playing around with marinara sauces. A lot of marinara sauces are a crushed tomato base. These sauces are usually pretty thick but sometimes can be slightly watery or runny but the flavor is amazing. But if you are used the canned sauces from the store such as Ragu or Prego. Ragu, for example, seems to me to be a tomato sauce or paste based. My family liked the texture and thickness of the Ragu sauces and I couldn't get that with my favorite marinara sauces for some reason. And so now I sometimes make this copycat Ragu sauce with some minor adjustments.
So after a long internet search, I found this recipe for which I made some minor adjustments.
The recipe I found was addressed "Copycat Ragu Tomato Sauce"
The Ingredients you will need:
- 29 oz. Tomato sauce
- 14.5 canned Italian diced tomatoes or can of crushed tomatoes
- 4 oz. sliced mushrooms (optional)
- 5 tsp. granulated sugar
- 1 tbs. olive oil
- 1 tbs. grated Parmesan and Romano cheese each.
- 1 tsp. dried basil
- 1/2 dried parsley
- 3 garlic cloves chopped finely. (or 1 1/2 tsp. of minced garlic)
- 1/8 tsp. black pepper
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/4 cup onion finely chopped (optional)
In a sauce combine all the ingredients and simmer for 20 minutes (simmer on a very low flame otherwise you will scorch your pot. Simmer uncovered or partially covered to help it reach the desired thickness. When stirring use a wooden spoon rather than an aluminum or metal spoon.). After it is finished cooking, serve as desired.
* I added ground hamburger to the sauce. Or you can even add meatballs. Get creative.
Have fun and get creative. Good luck!
Andrea
Andrea, have you made this "copycat" Ragu? Does it taste the same? Normally I use one jar and add an additional can of tomato sauce, red pepper, spices etc to make more and more flavourful, I am just looking for an alternative to the actual "Ragu". I would gladly make it, but I am concerned about the can of diced tomatoes. I know that I've never seen any chunks of tomato in any jar of Ragu that I've purchased and it seems odd to add it and have the same consistency and texture/flavour.
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Bob
Bob, I have made this recipe. It tasted similar, but not exactly the same. I generally use just plain crushed tomatoes, and when I make the sauce, it doesn't have chunks. The tomatoes usually cook down as it simmers. So, even the Italian diced tomatoes would cook down. However, to insure that there aren't any chunks of tomatoes, you could make sure all the tomatoes are mashed. I sometimes do that myself with my own homemade canned diced tomatoes because I like a smooth sauce, too.
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