Crazy Cooking Challenge: Spaghetti

I'm not gonna lie, I originally thought I'd skip out on this month's Crazy Cooking Challenge.  The challenge this month was for spaghetti, and I've already posted two of my own spaghetti recipes that, quite frankly, I love and have had no desire to change.  That, and my mom is here visiting for two weeks, and we're having so much fun running around that blogging and photographing meals is on the back burner for a bit.  But I must say I'm so glad I decided to make spaghetti while Mom was here.  I found a great recipe for sauce online, and paired with my favorite meatballs, this was perfect!  Mmm....  I'm sold!  I'll be making my own sauce from now on!  I found this spaghetti sauce from BlogChef and only made a few changes (the largest being that I used my meatball recipe, rather than crumbled Italian sausage as the original recipe suggests).  Anyway, I do hope you'll try this recipe, check out the other Challenge contestants, and check out BlogChef as well!  Enjoy!

1 small onion, chopped

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes

2 6-ounce cans tomato paste

1 15-ounce can tomato sauce

1 cup water (more if you plan to simmer longer than an hour)

1/2 cup fresh basil, torn

2 teaspoons dried parsley

1 ½ teaspoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (or more)

¼ teaspoon pepper

¼ cup red wine

In a large skillet, saute onions until soft. Add garlic, crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce, and water. Mix well.

Add basil, parsley, brown sugar, salt, red pepper flakes, and black pepper. Mix well and bring to a slow boil. Stir in red wine.

Simmer on low stirring frequently for at least 1 hour.  If using meatballs, add baked meatballs to sauce and allow flavors to mingle several minutes during this time.  Serve over cooked spaghetti noodles.