Spaghetti with cheesy tomato cream sauce

This recipe is from the Food Nanny's book.  It isn't my favorite book of all time, but it has a few decent recipes. This one wasn't bad.   I did make some changes -  I prefer to saute my onions in butter, so I changed that, but I used 1/4 what it called for.  I also cut down on the Parmesan cheese -afraid to make it too strong for the kids.  I subbed out a can of crushed tomatoes for diced.  I was going to sub out part milk for the cream, but ended up going out with DH for dinner, so I went ahead and used full cream for the kids.  They can use the fat right?  The recipe said to only use 8 oz. of noodles, and that it was only 4 servings.  I did a bit more than 8 oz. of noodles and it wasn't enough.  I'd use the full box next time.  I now have left over sauce but no noodles.  I actually added some pre-cooked chicken to the top at the end to add some protein to the meal.  It turned out pretty good.  Had a great creamy basil flavor. It definitely needs the fresh basil for this flavor though.  If not using fresh basil, I'd probably season it with oregano instead.   Definitely one to keep in mind for a quick spaghetti sauce with a bit different flavor than our normal sauce.

Here's how I made it.

Ingredients

•  1 Tablespoon butter
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 small onion, minced
• 1 15 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 1 15 oz can petite diced tomatoes
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup cream 
• 1/4 cup ricotta cheese (I used fat free)
• 20 fresh basil leaves, chopped fine (or 1/2 teaspoon dried, but it wouldn't be the same.)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1 lb spaghetti
• 1 lb precooked chicken (if desired)

Directions

1. Cook noodles according to package directions.  Drain
2. Meanwhile, melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium high head.  Add onions and garlic and saute until softened.  Remove from heat and the rest of the ingredients.  Cook over low heat "until the sauce coats the back of a spoon"  10-15 minutes.  I just cooked 10-15 minutes.  It never really boiled or simmered over a low heat.  
3. Serve over pasta.  Top with chicken and additional Parmesan if desired.