Episode 203 - Spice Madness - Rustic Red Sauce

From time to time everyone looks for something quick and easy in the kitchen, even if it is only very occasionally. I remember Hamburger Helper and the concept that you get a flavor pack and you “just add” something - in that case ground beef. I started thinking, why not test some of these for my followers. So, in the public interest for those times when you just want easy, I have decided to embark on an occasional series focusing on these “just add” shortcuts, which I am calling Spice Madness. No particular schedule, but from time to time I will grab a “just add” spice blend and an episode will pop up.
My first one is from Savory Spice and is called Rustic Red Sauce, and the label says “Italy called. They want their sauce back.”. Hmmmm. The shopping list is pretty simple; one 28 oz can of tomatoes. So are the directions. Combine the tomatoes and flavor pack in a sauce pot, bring to a simmer, simmer for eight minutes. Staying true to the directions, that’s what I did.
The result was pretty underwhelming. It was way too sweet, and the spice combination was strange, coming across with something that I might describe as freeze-dried bell pepper. It was also just generally bland. This needed help. So I added:
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 oz red wine
• 2 oz red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp oregano
This helped. The wine and vinegar dialed back the sweetness quite a bit, the oregano gave it more of an Italian flavor profile, and the salt woke it up in general. Still, it wasn’t all that great and it didn’t seem like adding anything else was going to get it where it needed to be. Don’t get me wrong. It was not inedible, but Italy was certainly not going to be calling any time soon.
There is an epilogue to this. The next day it hit both Donna and me that it reminded us both of what folks who grew up in New York and New Jersey would call “Greek diner tomato sauce,” a variation that was aimed at the American palate of 50+ years ago. What if we embraced that and further adjusted the sauce using something of a Greek flavor profile. I had some ground lamb in the freezer. Not enough for all of the sauce, but enough to use about a cup of it. It went like this. In a skillet, put:
• 5 oz ground lamb
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/8 tsp ground clove
• a tiny pinch of freshly ground nutmeg (a few strokes on a rasp)
• a pinch of salt
When the lamb is cooked, add
• 1 cup of the previously adjusted sauce
This was actually pretty good. No, Greece isn’t calling to get this back either, but if you just forget what I was aiming at and accept it for what it is then you have a pretty good sauce for pasta, eggplant, or whatever else.
However, the amount of effort it takes to get it to where it is good violates the concept of “just add.” For this much work you can make something better from scratch with not much more effort. I would leave the Savory Spice Rustic Red Sauce spice pack on the grocery store shelf.