We had a bunch of leftover vegetables in the refrigerator, so I whipped up some garden sauce to have with our pasta. It was good enough that we decided to make a recipe out of it!

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 white onion, finely chopped
• 1 bell pepper, diced
• 2 tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 4 ounces of mushroom, chopped
• 1 tbsp. minced garlic
• 1 jar store-bought pasta sauce
• 1/2 tbsp garlic salt
• 1/2 tbsp oregano
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• 16 ounces pasta (we used rigatoni but you can do what you want)

Optional

• 2 links hot italian sausage
• 2 rashers bacon

Process

1. Heat the olive oil in a big skillet over medium heat. Simultaneously, heat up a large pot of salted water for your pasta.
2. Once the oil is shimmering and hot, add in the onions and garlic.
   Note: If using the meat, cook the sausage and bacon in the oil first. Once cooked, remove the meat but reserve the drippings.
3. Once the onions are translucent, add the green pepper and mushrooms.
   
4. Cook for a few minutes, then add the tomatoes and the store-bought sauce. Bring the heat to low.
   Optional: you can use an immersion blender to make the sauce a little finer, if you prefer.
5. Add the garlic salt, oregano, and red pepper flakes. If using the meat, add it back to the sauce at this point.
6. Cover and let simmer while the pasta cooks.
7. Once the pasta is cooked, serve immediately.
   
   
   

If you enjoyed this recipe, take a gander at some of our others over on The Recipes Page.