Friday, September 18, 2009

Cheap, Easy Pasta and Tomato Meat Sauce Recipe

I make my pasta from scratch. It is basically a 3:1 ratio of whole white wheat flour and water. It is cheaper, more nutritious and tastes fresher than store bought pasta.

1 1/2 cups flour - $0.24
1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon water $0

I mix these two ingredients into dough and roll out the dough as thin as I can get it with my rolling pin. I then cut it into strips with my pizza cutter. I cut the strips into short "noodles." Boil the pasta until it floats, then for five more minutes. It should have the texture of regular store bought pasta when it's done.
For the sauce I use a 12 oz sausage roll that I get at the Dollar Tree. I also get a 16 oz bag of frozen peppers and onions from the Dollar Tree. My bag was more peppers than onions, so I added some chopped onion as well.
12 oz sausage roll - $1.00
4 oz peppers and onions - $0.25
2 oz chopped onion - $0.06

When this mixture was nicely simmered, I added:

12 oz can GV tomato paste - $0.75
12 oz can filled with water - $0
1 tablespoon chopped garlic - $0.09
1 tablespoon oregano - $0.06
1/4 teaspoon stevia - $0.04 I add the cooked pasta right into the pan of sauce and serve it as a one dish meal. There were enough leftovers for my husband's lunch tomorrow and a few scraps in the pan for he or I, whoever gets there first, to pick at for an evening snack.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm really upset by the fact that the Dollar Tree's in my area do not carry food. Well, they do but only snacks and canned items. I've read about the 99 cent chef shopping there as well. Some of these recipes would be much more expensive for me. I think even Aldi sausage is priced at $2 or $2.50 a roll. I suppose I could always just use half.

Emily said...

Anna, I've seen the same brand sausage roll, 16 oz, at Walmart for $1.50. You can use ground beef or whatever is cheapest for you in this recipe. Yeah, I love our Dollar Tree with a freezer section. I got a lb of mixed berries for $1 (actually I bought 5 lbs)!

Anonymous said...

Wow...I may have to call around in neighboring towns to see if they have a freezer section. It sounds like it would be worth the drive if I was stocking up.

Allie said...

Is homemade pasta more nutritious than store bought pasta that is whole wheat? I'm curious to know the difference, as I've been purchasing whole wheat pasta and the only ingredient listed is whole wheat (no preservatives, etc). Interested to hear your thoughts!

C said...

I'm intrigued by the pasta. I make all of our bread, muffins, waffles, mixes, etc., but have not tried pasta. You make it sound pretty easy though. Perhaps I'll try it soon.

Thanks!

Aiming4Simple said...

Ground turkey sausage can sometimes be found at grocery stores for $1 to $2. It tastes quite good.

Anonymous said...

I'm enjoying the meal recipes you have been sharing. They are helpful, especially for anyone on a tight budget. Thank you.

Unknown said...

Thanks for posting your blog. It has got me thinking about how far I've gotten from these frugal ways. I was real bad anemic 2 years ago & sometimes still feel the effects of it & just can't do as much as I used to.I canuse my crockpot more though & some other things.Aldi's has ground turkey in frozen 1 pound rolls for , I think $1.29 , if remember right.

Emily said...

Anna, my Dollar Tree is a half hour away, so I combine it with other errands and stock up.

Allie, homemade is probably the same nutritionally store bought whole wheat, as long as there is nothing else in the store bought, just much cheaper.

Ruthie Denise said...

I have made my own noodles too but my recipe is a little harder than this one. This one looks easy to do.

Anonymous said...

I need to call other Dollar Trees in my area to see if they have installed freezer areas in their stores. We do have Grocery Outlet which I use but it never stocks items on a regular basis so you never know what you may or may not find on each trip.
You may also look in your normal grocery store for frozen rolls of meat. I have seen rolls of hamburger in the meat section priced more expensive then a frozen brand for the same amount of meat. It was over a 1.00 difference.

Anonymous said...

Sounds good-I likw to grate carrots into tomato sauce based dishes to mellow the flavor.

Jen said...

I just learned something new...woOT!! I honestly did not know one could make noodles with out eggs. This is SO good to know for oodles of reasons...if you don't have any eggs for one...but also as you did...if you are serving noodles with a meat or cheese sauce, why spend more $$ on extra protein in the noodles. My recipe is just flour with enough eggs to form a dough. I think I would still use this if just serving with a tomato sauce...but I will try your recipe when using meat or cheese sauces and save the buck on eggs!!

Patty said...

We've made pasta before but more as an experiment than a standard practice (at this point...) Anyway, last night my husband wanted to make lasagna noodles without using an egg and I imediatly sent him to this post. He had trouble forming flat noodles so we ended up with 'worms'. Fun and should bake up with some sauce and cheese just the same. Thanks!

Unknown said...

Emily,

I know this is an older post but I bookmarked it because I want to try out making my own pasta. Do you ever make a big batch and freeze it before boiling? Do you think that would work out ok?

Thanks!
Christy

Emily said...

Christy, I think you would need to dry them before freezing them. I make each batch as I need it just because rolling a big batch would be a hassle for me.

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