Spice – the spicy kick in “Kraft Tangy Spaghetti” box meal

food-identificationitalian-cuisinespaghettispices

So, since I've lived at home, there has been a boxed spaghetti mix that has always been especially good to me. The thing I like about it is a subtle heat of some kind of pepper or spice. I've tried recreating it but have never even came close. I would love to be able to remake the sauce mix with fresh ingredients and tone down the amount of salt that goes into it. Has anyone tried this and able to identify what this spicy factor is?

For reference, here is what the box looks like (in America anyway)

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Best Answer

I love the Kraft Tangy Italian spaghetti sauce seasonings and I just experimented with several of the suggestions listed above. I added some dried crushed red peppers into a blender along with Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Dried parsley leaves and an off brand "Italian Seasonings" blend of dried herbs and blended them all together. That was a good start, but then I added a little white vinegar and blended up some mushrooms and poured it all into an 18 quart roaster because I needed to make enough spaghetti and sauce for 50 adults. I began with 1 29 oz. can of canned tomato sauce and also added to it 1 14.5 oz. can of diced tomatoes with onion basil and oregano already in it. That was close, but needed to add some pepperoncini peppers about 1/2 of one per the above measurements of sauce. I added a teaspoon of powdered onion soup mix and a drop of Worcestershire sauce a drop of Louisiana hot sauce and 3 drops of soy sauce and then it tasted really close to it, or so much so that my wife and kids as well as my own tongue could not make out the difference. Hope this helps and works for you as well.