This is a sponsored review from BlogHer and Ragú.
When I was but a blushing young newlywed, I made my own spaghetti sauce. Now I certainly don’t mean that I grew my own tomatoes and herbs and spent endless hours planting and tending and harvesting my garden so that I could serve my husband the freshest possible tomato sauce, because the fact of the matter is that I’ve never really grown anything successfully. Except for maybe weeds. But those don’t really count, now do they?
I loved going to the grocery store, picking out all my favorite ingredients, then combining tomatoes, garlic, onion, basil and oregano in a big ole pot and letting the heat work its magic. My next door neighbor, Ann, taught me to grate a little carrot in my sauce to add a little sweetness. And don’t tell anybody, but I added a little sugar, too. The sauce could be time-consuming, but it was good. And I figured I’d make my own sauce forever.
After I became a mama, however, I started looking for shortcuts in the kitchen. Making my own spaghetti sauce wasn’t really high on the list anymore, and I’ll never forget the first time I made a spinach and spaghetti casserole with the sauce from a jar. IT WAS A REVELATION. It was simple and delicious and fast, and if you’ve ever tried to cook a meal while keeping one eye on a toddler, you know that fast cooking can be your friend. I was hooked.
A few weeks ago some folks from Ragu asked if they could send me some samples of their new spaghetti sauce. Since we eat spaghetti sauce in one dish or another at least once a week, I happily agreed. Truth be told, I’ve only bought Ragu a handful of times – we have typically preferred Another Brand – but I figured it couldn’t hurt to try, especially when I saw that the new recipe has two servings of vegetables in every half cup. If you’re someone who tries to make sure your little ones eat nutritious meals, you know that those two veggie servings per half cup are SOLID GOLD.
A couple of nights ago I decided to make lasagna with the Ragu sauce. I actually opened a jar of the old recipe and a jar of the new recipe so that I could compare the taste – and do you know what? I really could tell a difference. Since there are twice as many vegetables in the new recipe, the sauce is thicker, and the flavor is great. GREAT.
After the taste test, I assembled all the ingredients on the kitchen counter so that I could take their picture. And also so that I could remember how I made the dish because I wasn’t following a recipe. I’m all cuckoo and devil-may-care that way.
Don’t they look cute?
I browned my ground beef, cooked my noodles (our grocery store was out of the whole wheat lasagna noodles, so I improvised with whole wheat rigatoni) and mixed together the ricotta and cottage cheeses. Then I started layering. And here’s how it looked before I cooked it.
But do you know what’s even better? How it looked right before we ate it.
It was DELICIOUS – a huge hit with the whole family. Our seven year-old practically licked his plate, and it made me feel good that the sauce was chock-full of vegetables. I mixed cottage cheese in with the ricotta and he had no idea (he would not touch cottage cheese under normal circumstances), and I loved that our one dish hit four of the five food groups: dairy, veggies, protein and whole grains. OH, HAPPY DAY.
Here’s the recipe:
Riga-sagna
2 lbs. ground chuck, browned and drained (seasoned to taste)
1 jar Ragu
1 lb. whole wheat rigatoni, cooked
16 oz. whole milk ricotta cheese
16 oz. cottage cheese
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup mozzarella cheese, freshly gratedPreheat oven to 375. Combine cooked ground beef with Ragu sauce and let simmer on stove while cooking and assembling other ingredients.
Boil and drain pasta. Set aside.
Combine ricotta cheese, cottage cheese, basil, oregano and eggs – then set aside.
In a 9×13 baking dish, lightly coat the bottom of the dish with sauce. Put a layer of noodles on top, then ricotta mixture, then sauce, then noodles, then ricotta mixture, then sauce. Sprinkle mozzarella over top, then bake for 45 minutes to an hour.
You may have a few noodles left over if you cook the whole box – just FYI.
If you’d like to enter to win a $100 Visa gift card courtesy of BlogHer, leave a comment that answers the following question: what’s your favorite way to use spaghetti sauce when you cook for your family? Old fashioned spaghetti and meatballs? Chicken parmesan? Lasagna? A great family recipe?
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By the way, if you’d like to be one of the first to sample the new Ragu recipe, check out the Ragu Facebook page. They’re giving away some tremendous goodie baskets filled with Ragu sauce, pasta, a colander, a box grater, cookware and all sorts of kitchen gadgets via the Ragu Facebook Sweepstakes.
Happy Ragu-ing, y’all!
This giveaway is now closed.
I love to make stuffed shells with ricotta and parmesan for the family, covered with canned sauce. Delicious and they never stick around long!
We usually use it for spaghetti or pizza!
I’m all about tradition, spaghetti and meatballs!
I love to make any kind of soup I add beef, chicken, beans and use Ragu as my stock base with chicken or beef stock. My family loves soup made with Ragu.
I like to make what we call “spaghetti pie” or plain old lasagna. No kids yet, so one lasagna made on Sunday can last us for lunches all week! Gotta love that.
Spicy sausage manicotti. Dee-lish.
Lasagna, made by my husband. Before we dated, my husband dated an Italian girl, who taught him to make lasagna the way her mom made it in the “old country”. It is wonderful, and that is how we use spaghetti sauce the most often!
We usually do spaghetti, but I will never pass up lasagna!!!
Blessings!
Melanie
For a quick supper mixing jar sauce with browned hamburger for spaghetti. If I have more time, a lovely homemade chicken parm just makes my night!!
Our favorite is spinach lasagna!
I make my mom’s tortellini soup. It uses a jar of spaghetti sauce and some beef broth as the base, with vegetables and tortellini in it. It is absolutely one of my favorite comfort soups!
We love good old spaghetti – but I also use it for baked ziti!
Oh, I’ve loved Ragu for quite a few years. And my husband prefers it to my homemade sauce (!) so that is what we use. My favorite food is lasagna so that is my favorite way to use it, although I do a mean ‘baked spaghetti’ dish with orzo as well.
Spaghetti with ground beef and mushrooms. And lots of garlic bread!
English Muffin pizzas!
I love experimenting with pasta sauce, my latest is to use it as pizza sauce! I have also used left over spaghetti and sauce to flavor my vegetable soup..mmmm….great way to use what you have when there isn’t enough for everyone!
Love using Ragu on a busy night! Can’t wait to try the new formula!
OK– I’m trying it!
Meatball subs – make lots of meatballs and freeze extras. Ragu sauce, thawed meatballs, provolone and toasted roll!
We like a “goulash”. Just elbow macaroni, spaghetti sauce, hamburger, some garlic and beef broth. So Simple but Good!
I use it for my favorite stuffed shells recipe.
I read the official rules
spaghetti and lasagna. Boring I know.
I just found a new recipe for pizza pasta and the kids went crazy for it.
Fresh pasta and sauce! OOOOHHHH we love the fresh angel hair pasta in our house.
1prizewinner(at)hotmail.com
At least once a week I fry up a pound of ground beef, add it to a jar of Ragu and serve it over Angel Hair. It is so quick and easy, yet fulfilling and comforting! Certainly a staple and a go to dinner at my house.
We have pasta at least once a week…I buy hot italian sausage and fry it and put it in the spaghetti sauce. My kids love rotini noodles. We have salad and a Olive Oil bread as sides…yummy!
Tweeted:
http://twitter.com/auntiethesis/status/28624050126
My new favorite is to mix it with beef, onion and turkey, put it in a pile pan, top with mozzarella cheese and then use crescent rolls for the top crust MMMMMMM
We love it on homemade pizza
We Love to uses sauce mixed with angel hair pasta, turkey sausage, shrimp, corn, and crab legs….mmm Yummy!
we love spaghetti and meatballs
nannypanpan at sbcglobal.net
Lasagna Bowls make me happy – essentially all of the ingredients of lasagna, but made like spaghetti…
Spaghetti and meatballs, once a week, the kids never get tired of it.
Mostly spaghetti and meatballs, but we like to eat meatball subs the next day too!
I love garlic bread – and I warm up a little bit of spaghetti sauce to dip it in, even if I just have a salad and garlic bread for dinner, and never actually make the pasta!
Just regular spaghetti for us! Love the recipe – sounds good!!
Eggplant Parmesan
Baked Ziti with lots of cheese!
I make pizza bread (bread w/ pepperoni and cheese in the center) and we use spaghetti sauce for dipping…yum.
Chicken parm! But I mostly use it for spaghetti because it’s quicker.
My husband and I LOVE stuffed shells! Lotsa cheese, tomatoes, cheese, meat, cheese, and then topped with cheese!!!!
Good ol’ fashion spaghetti is a staple around here.
We are plain-jane spaghetti eaters, but it has to be thin spaghetti or vermicelli. No fat spaghetti for us. With garlic bread. And salad.
Baked spaghetti!
I am Italian so I love everything pasta!! Spaghetti and meatballs are probably my fav!
I use spaghetti sauce to make a great mozzarella meatloaf!
Add a little cream or whole milk to spaghetti sauce, heat, and poured over cavatappi pasta. My favorite.
Spaghetti and Italian sausage! We all love it, ages 2-none ya bizness!
Great to have the good old Ragu on hand for something quick. I add some extra spices for spaghetti, lasagna, rigatoni.
Yum, think I’ll make some tomorrow.
good old fashioned spaghetti with meat sauce.
I love spaghetti, but simmering green pepper in the spaghetti sauce before it’s served is best.
Baked lasagna, the easy way!
Just plain ole spaghetti!
tweeted!
http://twitter.com/ErinWard
Lasagna!!!
I like to make lasagna for my family and also to make and take to other families for dinner. I love to use a good jar sauce to help speed up the process.
chicken parmesean
Like you, we use sauce at least once or twice a week. I try to vary what I cook, whether is is just Spaghetti with meatballs or meat sauce or Lasagna and on occasion we will have the Ragu Alfredo sauce with penne and spinach. I am always trying some new combination but always with Ragu. It has been a staple for years and no matter how many others I try I keep coming back because I love it and so do the kids. Ragu also makes a great dip for cheesy breads and fried mozzarella sticks.
Usually just plain ol’spaghetti. Which we had for dinner tonight. I also use it in meatballs for BigMama’s meatball sandwich (or was it yours). Anyway my people love that!
Eggplant parm!
just wonderful spaghetti works for us.
Love the sauce mixed with ground beef…so good!
Baked ziti, pizza or just any kind of pasta covered in sauce.
Thanks for offering this giveaway.
We have a great family recipe for meatballs that I just can’t top!
We like our sauce on plain old spaghetti! I jazz it up a bit by browning ground sausage and adding it to the sauce.
Kids love spaghetti and meatballs
tweet.http://twitter.com/tcarolinep/status/28764793435
My favorite thing to do with a jar of sphagetti sauce is to hand it to the man-of-the house and let him make whatever he wants! He makes a really good lasagna.
Spaghetti Pie
Spaghetti and meatballs for our family.
Spaghetti is a wonderful stand-by, but, We love to pour it over chicken in the crockpot, let it cook all day and then serve that over noodles or rice. Yummy and easy!
I would say spaghetti and meatballs. Sometimes I add it to my chili too.
Spaghetti..Spadetti…’getti…in the words of myself, my 4 year old and my 3 year old!
classic lasagne!
Sauteed Chicken with spinach and cheese tortellini. MMM. Guess I’m going shopping for some Ragu cause I just made myself really hungry!
Plain old fashioned spaghetti or rigatoni. Num num num.
My step daughter loves when I make Baked Spaghetti from the leftover spaghetti. It’s a simple recipie, don’t know why she likes it so much but she does and that makes me happy!
Spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread!
We are all about the Baked Ziti here – quick and easy.
Brown some ground beef and onions and make some spaghetti sauce! I LOVE spaghetti….
I have to tell you, my mother always made her own spaghetti sauce. We kids were spoiled. One day, on a weekday, a teacher was coming over for dinner and my mom was out of time. She used a jar of Ragu instead of her own sauce. Our guest loved it but we kids wouldn’t touch it. As an adult, I used to make my own sauce but it never tasted as good as Mom’s. Then Ragu and The Other Brands started coming out with all their new recipes – chunky, gardenstyle, 3-cheese, etc. I haven’t made sauce in years. I love these jars.
We mostly use sauce for Lasagna, but we also use it for those really quick what-can-we-eat-tonight meals: just a jar of sauce and some spaghetti on a plate. Perfect!
I usually just add mushroom, green pepper, onion, and ground beef to sauce for spaghetti. Super simple and super fast.
Christine
dazed1821@aol.com
I love to use spaghetti sauce to make Lasagna!
My family favorite recipe used pasta sauce was in lasagna
just straight spaghetti, no meatballs
We love spaghetti and meat sauce the best, but when its just me and hubby, I make eggplant parmesan. Delicious!
I am a purest. I just love nothing better than a plate of spaghetti with plain tomato based sauce…mmmmm
I tweeted here: http://twitter.com/#!/FotoMacro/status/29093400998
It would definitely be making lasagna. So much easier than making the sauce from scratch!
tweeted http://twitter.com/#!/RePurrPussed/status/29093839003
mmmm you Riga-sagna looks delicious! mmmm that cheese! xoxo
My faaavorite way is chicken perm. but good ol spaghetti meatball makes everyone happy too.
Plain ol spaghetti is a family favorite here
Favorite recipe with Ragu is Baked Ziti.
ape2016(at)aol(dot)com
My favorite way to use spagetti sauce is the boring way———over spagetti noodles with some hamburger and seasonings. Sometimes simple is the best!
We love Spaghetti Pie at our house. And if I have leftover sauce we use it as pizza sauce for homemade pizzas. :)
My husband makes what he calls Homemade Hamburger Helper that his mom made when he was growing up. Make a box of Mac & Cheese as directed, add browned hamburger and a jar of Ragu and heat.
susitravl(at)gmail(dot)com
I love to make eggplant parmesan and angelhair pasta.
My family LOVES spaghetti and I use Ragu in many different ways but our family favorite is Penne and sauce and meat! My kids BEG for it almost every week.
Penne and sauce! We use Ragu at our house and when my kids were young we made the switch from spaghetti to a shorter pasta that was easier to manage. My son preferred rigatoni and after he headed to college we switched to my daughter’s favorite, penne.