To make a really great spaghetti sauce, you've got to let it simmer and you've got to put a whole lotta love into it.

If I have the time on a Sunday afternoon, I'm more than happy to dice onions, mushrooms and peppers and tend to the sauce throughout the day.

But come on - who has that kind of time these days?!

So I went in search of a sauce that tastes homemade yet comes in a jar and only has pure ingredients that I can pronounce. It's a tall order, I know, but I found what I was looking for in Coupla Guys Foods.

Their sauces are thick, rich and oozing with homemade goodness. And it doesn't just stop at tomato. No, these boys have got a whole range of stuff! Come have a look:
Marvelous Marinara - this is your your basic sauce (basic in that it's just tomatoes, garlic, etc, but not basic at all in taste - it's fragrant and developed and robust, without being at all overpowering) that stands up on it's own - just pasta and this oughtta do it. But you can add your own ingredients like ground meat, sausage, vegetable protein, vegetables, seafood - whatever you like. But trust me when I tell you that you certainly don't have to. In fact, it's nice just to enjoy it as is.

Because it's no mere jarred sauce. This is the good stuff and you'll know because you'll savour every bite.

I did.

Creme de la Cremini - Mushrooms are an essential part of Italian cooking, and this bright, earthy sauce doesn't just have to top pasta (though you'll want to be sure to do that too). The cremini mushrooms bring real depth to chicken, veal and pork. I made veal parmesan with it and my fella was smitten. There is a little spice to this one, so when topped our fish with it, it added that little bit extra that I'm always looking for when flavouring a mild fish.

Perfect Puttanesca - Capers and kalamata olives are something that both my guy and I often add to our sauces, whether they are homemade or prepared, so when we say this, we were pretty excited.

We were not disappointed. I used this not only for pasta dishes, but I topped my homemade meatloaf with it (oh-mawh-gawd), blended in with a meat and rice for stuffed peppers and one night on top of baked polenta... sigh.

Awesome Arribata - I have bought a lot of gourmet sauces in my past that deem themselves "spicy" and then we try them and we end up putting red pepper flakes or hot sauce on it because it's barely got any kick to it at all. Not this sauce. This is just on this side of hot, which is what we were looking for. I had a whole bunch of plans for this one, but we ended up eating it all just on pasta one night. We couldn't help ourselves apparently.

Buoy Base - This is an intriguing sauce, as it seems so east coast to me, with its seafood-centric ideas. But it didn't take us anytime to dig in and love it. It's decadent and sexy and though I only added shrimp, scallops and salmon, it tasted like a million bucks.

And I don't know if you've ever tried to make bouillabaisse yourself, but it's expensive, a lot of hard work and smelly.

I'll take this one any day!
Serious Sesame Sauce - What a fun idea this is - a thick, rich sauce that is more sesame-tasting than anything I've ever had. I checked out the recipe and serving tips on the website and followed the instuctions. We had thick noodles coated with the stuff one night and I topped boneless, skinless chicken with it the next. We finished the jar and started to want a second one right away.

Terrific Tapenade - I've been buying and making tapenade since the early nineties and I've gotta say - this is one of the best I've ever had. We were slathering our bagels with it in the morning and I was tossing it into pasta, adding it to our pizza crust before baking and generally using it each and every opportunity I could. This is heaven, ladies and gentlemen.

So first of all, these sauces are incredible. Secondly, they are not crazy expensive. And thirdly, you should get more than one of each because once you've tried it, you'll realize, you can never have enough of Couple Guys Foods.