Spaghetti Sauce

When I was in Italy in January, we went to this terrific restaurant in Florence. One item on the menu involved chili powder in pasta sauce. It sounds weird but it turned out to be really good. Since I've come back, I have yet to buy a single jar of premade pasta sauce.

INGREDIENTS:
28 oz. can diced tomatoes or equivalent amount of fresh, peeled, diced tomatoes
2 (give or take) cloves garlic, minced
1 small onion, diced
olive oil
cooking wine
rosemary
oregano
black pepper
chili powder
any other veggies you want to add

PROCEDURE:
Combine onion, garlic, and olive oil (enough to cover the onion and garlic, and then some) in a pot big enough to hold everything. Sautee the mixture until onions are soft. Put some of the tomatoes in a food processor (fewer tomatoes food processed gives chunkier sauce) and have that chop them up. Add processed tomatoes and diced tomatoes to pot. Add veggies, spices, and cooking wine to taste. Cook until significantly thicker. Serve over your favorite pasta or use to make pizza.

If I'm feeding several people or if I'm planning on eating pasta nonstop for the next week I double the recipe.

Thai Peanut Sauce

Per lb. of Pasta (Works better with Rotini or Ziti instead of Angel Hair)

1/2 c water
1/2 c lite soy sauce
1/2 c chunky peanut butter
1/8 c brown sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 minced garlic cloves
dash red pepper

Mix ingredients in large bowl (do not heat!) until peanut butter completely dissolves. Cook pasta to desired tenderness and strain. Add still hot pasta to sauce and mix. Takes approx 10-15 minutes. Feeds 4-6 people per lb of pasta