Yet another family favorite recipe that’s simple enough for weeknight dinners and tasty enough for special occasions like birthdays and anniversaries (at least according to my husband.) This tomato sauce is easily made with pantry staples and can be refrigerated for up to one week in an airtight container. Made with store-bought tomato sauce, tomato soup, pesto sauce, and sweet Italian sausage, this sauce is delicious on spaghetti noodles or used as the base for lasagna.

Hello from fiery California! Sadly massive fires seem to be our new normal—after a couple of years of not have any large fires in the area (the Sobreanas Fire was our last “big” one), we currently have two fires that aren’t cooperating with firefighters: the River Fire and the Carmel Fire. We’re still in the middle of a heatwave and now we’ve got another element of misery to deal with.

This will probably come as zero surprise to those of you who know me in real life, but I come from a place of comfort in complex recipes. Work smarter, not harder isn’t a piece of advice I typically follow when it comes to cooking. To me, there are few greater comforts in life than spending half a day working on one particular dish even though nobody is going to appreciate the hours I put into it. So, when today’s recipe started becoming a regular in my rotation, I struggled with the simplicity of it.

This recipe is one of my husband’s absolute favorites of all times, I’m shocked it’s taken me this long to get this recipe posted. While my mother-in-law was known for her desserts (hello, Turtle Cookie Bars) she had a plethora of dinner recipes that tasted like they were impossible to make but were quite simple to get on the table. This tomato sauce was one of those recipes.

This tomato sauce recipe is what I consider a “cheat.” It takes complex, but it’s simple to make and there’s no need to crush tomatoes by hand, or hover over the stove for hours upon hours perfecting the flavors every inch of the way. This recipe is one of those recipes that your pantry is built for: canned, store-bought tomato sauce (or homemade sauce that’s been properly stored), pesto sauce (again, either store-bought or homemade sauce that you’ve ferreted away), canned tomato soup (what?!), your favorite dried pasta, sweet or spicy Italian sausage, a little bit of wine and some freshly grated Parmesan. That’s it!

While I don’t have children, this recipe is a great back to school recipe, especially with everyone working/studying from home all day.