For Me....
The best "cheating" is that which makes people think you slaved for hours when you didn't. This doesn't happen with a lot of "easy" recipes, because while they may be acceptable family or casual fare, you can tell that products were combined to "create" something.
This "cheated" spaghetti sauce of mine - which I've posted here before - meets my definition of a successful cheat. It tastes wonderful, and the bottled sauce origins are very well-disguised indeed:
FABULOUS FAKE SPAGHETTI SAUCE
1 large onion, chopped
2 green bell peppers, seeded and chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tb. olive or vegetable oil
1 pound mild breakfast sausage
2 small cans of mushroom stems and pieces
2 jars spaghetti sauce, such as Ragu Chunky Gardenstyle
1 bay leaf
Brown sugar, to taste
First: Heat the olive oil in a heavy four-quart saucepot over medium heat. Add the onions, peppers and garlic and cook until soft, but not brown. Drain off any excess oil remaining (there probably won't be any).
Second: In a skillet, saute the sausage until thoroughly cooked and well-browned, breaking it up as it cooks, just like you would with ground beef. There will be a lot of grease. Once the sausage is cooked, pour it into a heatproof colander that has been set over a bowl or pan. Press hard on the sausage with the back of a wooden spoon, to press all excess grease from it. Discard the grease. The more meticulous you are in this step, the better the final result.
Third: Put the cooked, drained sausage into the saucepot with the onions, peppers and garlic. Add the mushrooms and the spaghetti sauce, stir. Add the bay leaf, and bring up to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes.
Fourth: Taste the sauce, and add a bit of brown sugar to round off any acidic taste. You can start with 2 teaspoons or so, and you can add more if you like a bit of evident sweetness, as I do. Simmer, covered, 15 minutes more.
Fifth: The sauce can be served immediately, but it improves if cooled and refrigerated overnight. If you refrigerate it, you'll have an opportunity to scrape off any fat that has accumulated on top of the sauce, but if you have drained the sausage correctly, there will be very little of it, almost none in fact. The sauce reheats and freezes very well.
This sauce is very rich in taste, very thick and extremely chunky with peppers, meat and mushrooms. It also is a cost-effective sauce, not one that will break the bank. If you'll keep your mouth shut about its origins, people will think you worked much harder than you actually did! ;-)
