I did not have tomato paste, I substituted ketchup LOL. I also only had cans of petite diced tomatoes, those worked fine. I doubled the recipe, we used it on a 1 pound box of pasta, surprisingly I only had like maybe a cup and a half left of sauce on the pasta was gone. When doubling, I recommend using a tall Dutch oven or some other type of taller pan with a lid. I just used our regular large frying pan, and it was a little shallow for the volume of sauce. I also still only used 1 pound of meat but doubled the rest of the ingredients. Came out great and I recommend. My family does not love the chunky tomato style sauce (I do!!!), but that was their only complaint. Everyone liked the flavor. The recommended spice combination is perfect even though it will look like a lot when you put it in the pan initially.
