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This easy Spaghetti Sauce Recipe is made with beef and all your favorite savory Italian spices. The secret ingredient? A touch of sugar enhances the natural sweetness of the tomato sauce.
The best Spaghetti Sauce recipe is essential for the home cook. Yes, you can serve it with spaghetti noodles, but you can also make loads of other recipes with it.
Spaghetti Meat Sauce shows up in Lasagna, Baked Ziti, Zucchini Parmesan, and over zucchini noodles and Eggplant Parmesan. In a pinch, it can work as a pizza sauce, or you can thin it with water to make an Italian-flavored soup.
Plenty of Italian spices flavor this sauce, and you can also customize it with more vegetables, fresh herbs, spicy red pepper flakes, or even a leftover Parmesan cheese rind stuck in the back of your freezer.
Leftover spaghetti sauce is also perfect for freezing, so make a big batch and store it away for busy days ahead when you wish you had time to slowly stir a simmering pot of Spaghetti Sauce.
Table of Contents
Recipe ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
Ingredient notes
- Sugar: Add sugar to taste. For some, that means omitting it entirely. For others, you can increase the sugar up to ¼ cup.
- Italian seasoning: It’s easy to make your own homemade Italian seasoning with dried basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme and marjoram.
Step-by-step instructions
- In a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat, add beef and onion and cook until mostly browned, about 5 minutes. Drain if desired. Stir in garlic until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, sugar, basil, Italian seasoning, and bay leaf. Simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season to taste with salt and pepper (I like 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper).
- Serve over pasta or put your sauce to work in any number of Italian classics like Baked Ziti (shown below).
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: This recipe makes 2 quarts or 8 cups, enough for 16 (½ cup) servings. It’s also enough for one lasagna.
- Storage: store in the refrigerator and use within 4 days.
- Freezer: Cool the finished sauce, then pack into freezer-safe containers (I like to use glass Mason jars; leave a half-inch of head space for expansion), and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator (or defrost in the microwave if you need your sauce fast). Flat-laying freezer bags work too!
- Customize your sauce: Change up this sauce based on your personal protein preference. Try ground pork sausage, ground chicken, or ground turkey instead of beef. You could even add veal for a “meatloaf mix.” For deeper savory flavors, add a splash of beef broth or chicken broth to your sauce and simmer until thickened.
- Herbs: Stir minced fresh herbs into the final sauce or garnish your dish with fresh parsley or fresh basil.
- Spicy: Stir in red pepper flakes to taste with the other spices or pass separately at the table.
- Creamy: Add heavy cream to taste (start with ¼ cup and see if you want more). If you have time for the sauce to simmer longer, stir in a leftover Parmesan cheese rind from the freezer.
- Buttery: Add 1 or 2 tablespoons butter or a drizzle of olive oil to the sauce for a rich, buttery taste.
- Italian meatballs: These classic Italian Meatballs are ready to be sauced and served with spaghetti, on meatball subs, or as an appetizer. Pan-fry and baking instructions included! Or try my wildly popular Turkey Meatballs.
- Meat sauce: My favorite Homemade Meat Sauce has both ground beef and Italian sausage. It’s perfect for lasagna, spaghetti, or spiralized zoodles, and it comes together with easy pantry ingredients.
- Meatless: For a hearty meatless marinara sauce, try my Homemade Tomato Sauce. This version is made with diced tomatoes, and you can add extra vegetables like onions, bell peppers, or finely diced carrots. This one makes a great pizza sauce, too!
- Spaghetti and Meatballs: This classic Spaghetti and Meatballs Recipe is a hearty and comforting family dinner idea. One bite of this Italian-American dinner recipe will transport you to a Midwestern red sauce restaurant.
- Spaghetti Squash with meat sauce: Learn how to cook spaghetti squash, then top with homemade tomato sauce or your favorite meat sauce.
- Lasagna: This traditional Lasagna Recipe has three kinds of cheese, two different meats, one fantastic homemade sauce, and plenty of cheese. Or, try my super popular Make Ahead Lasagna which uses standard lasagna noodles (not the no-boil kind) but they go in unboiled, uncooked, bone-dry. It’s amazing.
- Zucchini Lasagna: Grilled ribbons of zucchini stand in for lasagna noodles in this Zucchini Lasagna layered with ricotta and marinara-coated ground beef.
- Zucchini Parmesan: In lieu of the whole breading-and-frying situation, this fuss-free Zucchini Parmesan uses roasted zucchini “noodles” in one of my best Italian dinners for busy weeknights.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, you sure can! Transfer the browned beef, onion, and garlic mixture to a slow cooker. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, sugar, basil, Italian seasoning, and bay leaf, then cover and cook on HIGH for 2 to 3 hours or LOW for 4 to 6 hours.
To customize your homemade spaghetti sauce, stir in chopped green peppers or sliced mushrooms with the onions. Substitute fire-roasted tomatoes for the crushed tomatoes. Or, add chili flakes (a pinch or a lot!) for extra heat.
San Marzano tomatoes come from the San Marzano region of Italy. They are a type of plum tomato with a narrow in shape, a pointed tip and fewer seeds than standard plum tomatoes. They are one of those ingredients with a PDO designation: Protected Designation of Origin, just like true Champagne must come from the Champagne region of France and Parmigiano-Reggiano is tightly regulated in both origin, ingredients, and aging. San Marzano tomatoes are now grown in the United States, too, but they will never have the PDO (DPO in Italian) designation. Or at least, they shouldn’t.
While some epicureans swear San Marzano tomatoes are worth the extra money, that’s up to you, your wallet, and your taste buds.
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Spaghetti Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 1 medium onion chopped (about 1 cup)
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
- 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
- 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar or to taste (see note 1)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning (see note 2)
- 1 bay leaf
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Pasta cooked according to package directions, for serving
Instructions
- In a large saucepan or Dutch oven over medium-high heat, add beef and onion and cook until mostly browned, about 5 minutes. Drain if desired. Stir in garlic until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, sugar, basil, Italian seasoning, and bay leaf. Simmer uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Season to taste with salt and pepper (I like 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper).
Notes
- Sugar: Add sugar to taste. For some, that means omitting it entirely. For others, you can increase the sugar up to ¼ cup.
- Italian seasoning: It’s easy to make your own homemade Italian seasoning with dried basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme and marjoram.
- Yield: This recipe makes 2 quarts or 8 cups, enough for 16 (½ cup) servings. It’s also enough for one lasagna.
- Storage: store in the refrigerator and use within 4 days.
Nutrition
Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.