I doubled the recipe, so let me say that first.  Most of the recipes in this book are for four servings, and that just won’t cut it in my family.  Depending on what it is, I double them, even triple them if it is something I have made before and I know works for us.

This recipe doubled has about 10 servings actually.  I paid about $23 for all the ingredients or about $2.30 a serving.  Not too bad, though my husband did mention that this sauce would probably work with regular pasta, or any small noodle….that would cut the cost per serving down to about $1.70.  And for our family, pretty darn good! This took me about 8 minutes to get all the ingredients, and much of that was cutting the toms.  The beef and onions had to cook-about 10 minutes, and then once you added everything else and had it boiling the sauce had to simmer for about 35 minutes.  I am assuming they believe you do other things while the sauce is simmering, if so, that certainly worked for me.  I washed some dishes, got the kids book bags ready for school, and read a bit of a magazine.

I liked it!  The sauce had a richness that I think came from the beef broth.  I think the fresh tomatoes really added something that you just can’t get from canned toms either.  I will certainly make this again, though I will probably try it with pasta noodles to see how that works.

R-Said the sauce was really good!  He seemed ambivalent about what the sauce was poured over, but he went back for seconds!

C-Loved it!  Though, I think for the most part he loves anything even remotely Italian.  Had seconds as well!

J-Said it was good!  Didn’t have seconds, but he did clean his plate, and probably would have licked the bowl if I allowed that sort of thing.

A-said it was good, but only had a tiny bit of sauce.  I think he really just liked the cheese ravioli I used.

H-when I asked him if it was good, he said, “Yeah, it’s really good!” Of course he said this while eating the garlic cheese bread (Thank you Pepperidge Farm!)

D-Really seemed to like the sauce!  He was napping late, and was very cranky when we got him up for dinner.  But he certainly opened his mouth when daddy fed him the sauce and once he woke up he picked through the bowl himself looking for yummy pieces of meat.

This one was a winner!