Fish sauce is the only real hunt here—you'll need to stop at an Asian market or the international aisle at Harris Teeter or Kroger, since most Food Lion and ALDI locations won't stock it—but a small bottle lasts for months and costs around $3 to $5. The sauce itself is dead simple and genuinely cheap: onion, canned tomatoes, butter, salt, and that fish sauce add up to roughly $1 to $1.50 per serving, even with good butter. The 45-minute timer is honest for simmering time, but budget five extra minutes for chopping and rendering the onion. This is a keeper that reheats beautifully, works over pasta or rice, and rewards patience with deep umami flavor—exactly the kind of weeknight dish that gets better the next day.