Try adding the tiniest pinch of cinnamon for an interesting change.
Or sauteed ground lamb, a pinch of allspice, and a pinch of cinnamon, and maybe a splash of red wine if you’re feeling Greek.
Well, I’ve used anchovy paste and I’ve used fish sauce, and the fish sauce is more popular with the palates in the Mercotan household. Nor did the participants seem to think the flavor was completely different.
Boy, you people sure do abuse your spaghetti sauces. 
My favorite is to get a tin or jar of tapenade (or make some yourself. I like the classic kind: olive, capers, and anchovies.) Add it, to taste, to your basic tomato sauce along with some crushed garlic and red pepper flakes, and you have a quick ‘n’ easy puttanesca sauce.
As for fish sauce v. anchovies, the taste shouldn’t be dissimilar. The fish sauce I use is made from anchovies. I would never dream of using it in a spaghetti sauce (along with half the ingredients mentioned in this thread), but it’s not like they taste completely different.
:smack:
Umm…yeah, that’s what I get for skimming. I see something similar has already been mentioned. So my contribution is the prepared tapenade suggestion…yeah, that’s it.
Patak’s Kashmiri Masala. Use it instead of garlic in any recioe.
Salsa
Also, if you’re not going to make it from scratch, start with a better spaghetti sauce. Barilla tends to make very good sauces, and they have a line of products with two separate jars which you mix (the smaller jar has pesto, or cheese sauce, or something else, depending on the kind you buy). When I was in Italy, one of the best meals I had (surprisingly) was when my cousin made a bowl of spaghetti using a Barilla sauce (a meat sauce which they, unfortunately, don’t sell here :smack: ), with just a couple fresh ingredients added.
two simple additions that can improve things
baby spinach leaves
can of tuns
(but not both together)
Thanks Nico, I’m going to try this and let you know. In fact I’m going to try most of these suggestions. Printing out the page as we speak. Bon Voage! No…wait. Bon Ami! Er… that ain’t right either.
Thanks in Italy speak. 
Jack
Bolding mine
The OP said Cheap & Store-bought.
I make a great homemade sauce in a huge pot. It takes me two days and I have enough to freeze a couple of meals and give sauce to friends. It is really good but not what was requested.
The store-bought makes an excellent base and a few additives, say $4 or $5 worth makes all the difference. Cheap, quick (compairitively) and very good. The jars make great storage containers as you can take it out frozen, remove the lid, and put it in the microwave on 10% power for about 4 minutes while the noodles cook and you are good-to-go.
Spaghetti sauce is simply doctored up tomatoes. My base sauce has only the following ingredients:
garlic
onion
olive oil
tomato paste
canned tomatoes (whole, chopped, stewed, whatever)
salt, pepper, sugar (a pinch) basil, oregano
Fry the first 4 ingredients together, add the tomatoes, spice it and heat it up.
That’s it, it’s a tasty sauce and cheap as dirt. If you’re doing that amount of work on a pricey store bought sauce, you may as well make your own. The purpose of buying store bought is to eliminate the need to cook a sauce, if your store bought isn’t good enough, try another brand.
For a while now I’ve been wanting to add wine to some of my dishes to improve the flavor. What kind of red wine would be delicious in spaghetti sauce?
Okay, this will sound icky, I thought so too when my boyfriend suggested it but it’s actually rather tasty.
Hard-boiled egg.
He’s says it’s something that came from his Italian side of the family and I have yet to see it confirmed as any sort of Italian tradition anywhere but it’s not bad. It doesn’t taste too eggy, it’s actually almost meaty tasting. We usually hard boil the egg at the same time we make the pasta so the egg is nice and hot. Then we peel the egg and each serving gets at least one whole egg. Then when it’s on your plate you chop it up and mix it around. I have been instructed by him that you don’t chop up the egg and mix it all up with the sauce in advance, only when it’s on your plate.
If you have cold hard-boiled eggs you can always throw them in with the pasta for a few minutes to warm them up.
For a meat sauce, I’ve seen either dry red or dry white wine added to the meat as it’s cooking down. It really doesn’t matter. I like something full-bodied like a cabernet sauvignon, personally. The rule with wine is never to cook with a wine you wouldn’t be willing to drink. If it’s not fit enough to drink, it’s not fit enough to be cooked with. I add it to the meat after it’s done browning. Cook the meat down, then add a cup or two of milk (depending on how much meat sauce you’re making), cook that down, and then add your wine, cook that down, and add your tomato base.
As I’ve said before, if you’re not too fixed on tomato sauce you could try an old-style Sicilian puttanesca. Just coarsely chop some Sicilian olives (the ones with hot peppers), finely chop lots of garlic, and saute both in plenty of olive oil until just heated through. Toss with your cooked pasta, and sprinkle each serving with freshly-grated parmesan or romano cheese.
The ladies would allegedly serve it to their gentleman friends, to give them strength.
I always find jar sauce too thin for my liking, so I add a can of tomato paste to thicken it up.
I can’t believe no one has mentioned balsamic vinegar. Stirring in extra virgin olive oil is nice.
Marsala wine works well, too. I like capers and/or olives as well as baby spinach as mentioned previously.
Adding heavy whipping cream or half & half makes a nice little cream sauce. Also, NUTMEG!! it goes in everything you know…