This post may contain affiliate links. Read disclosure policy
Our family favorite Homemade Spaghetti Sauce is full of robust flavors, plenty of garlic, and loads of fresh tomato flavor. So easy – just toss your ingredients in a pot to simmer for a couple of hours and you’ll have the most flavorful spaghetti sauce recipe!
My mama used to tease me for making my life more difficult than it needs to be.
I once had our family coming over and was in a major time crunch. And, yet, I still made homemade ricotta cheese to add to the baked ziti I was serving. Ridiculous? Probably. Worth it? 100%.
I love making quick dinner rolls or biscuits from scratch.
And you’ll often find me making this homemade spaghetti sauce. That’s not to say I never grab a jar of sauce, because hey – I’m a busy mom too.
But oh man, this homemade spaghetti sauce is just the best and it’s really not a lot of work – it just needs some time to simmer on the stove and then it’s ready to use in your baked ravioli, crockpot lasagna, or our family favorite baked spaghetti.
♥ What We Love About This Recipe:
Flavor: You’ll get a far superior and more complex flavor when you make your sauce from scratch vs. starting with a jar of sauce.
Freshness: When you make spaghetti sauce at home, you have complete control over the ingredients. This means using the best quality tomatoes, vegetables, meats, and seasonings available. The difference in taste and texture is immediately noticeable compared to mass-produced jarred sauces.
Customized: One of the joys of homemade spaghetti sauce is the ability to customize it to your personal preferences. Whether you like it spicier, sweeter, chunkier, or with more or less of certain ingredients, the flexibility to adapt the recipe is hugely appealing.
Budget Friendly: Preparing a large batch of homemade spaghetti sauce is often more economical than repeatedly purchasing jarred varieties. Plus, the leftovers can be easily frozen for quick, delicious meals down the road.
Ingredient Notes:
Ground Meat – I’m using a combination of ground beef and ground pork in my homemade spaghetti meat sauce! Both will add flavor but you can change it up and use all beef or all sausage if you prefer!
Garlic & Onion – Pretty much necessary ingredients for any good spaghetti sauce as far as I am concerned. Especially all that garlic! With six cloves of garlic in this sauce you’ll definitely be getting plenty of flavor – but feel free to add as much as your heart desires. There is no limit to garlic.
Tomato – You’ll need canned crushed tomatoes as well as tomato paste. We use canned tomatoes instead of fresh, but always go for a high quality brand. Canned tomatoes are picked and canned at the peak of freshness and good all year long.
Italian Seasoning – A simple blend of basil, oregano, thyme, and other savory herbs and spices.
Sugar – Sugar might seem like an odd addition, but it’s just a bit and it helps to balance out the acid in the tomatoes. Skip this if you prefer or grate in a carrot to add some natural sweetness.
Red Pepper Flakes – These are optional, but they really don’t make this spicy. They just add a depth of flavor.
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
What Readers are Saying!
“This recipe is the best I have tasted. The ingredients needed were in my cabinet & fast and easy to make. Good bye sauce in a jar!” – Susan D.
How to Make Homemade Spaghetti Sauce:
Brown the ground beef and sausage in a heavy bottomed pot, such as a dutch oven. Once cooked through, stir in the garlic and onion and keep cooking until softened.
Stir in the tomato sauce, tomato paste, and seasonings and bring this to a simmer. Cook this uncovered for 2-4 hours. The longer the better!
Give your sauce a taste and adjust the seasonings to suit your tastes. You may need more salt or more sugar. A dash of Worcestershire sauce adds more savory depth and a knob of butter will add a silky mouthfeel to the sauce.
Recipes To Use Our Spaghetti Sauce With:
We love making pasta and other Italian favorites! They always go over well with my kids and are usually our go-to for dinner parties!
Use this as a sauce for pizza and top it off with cheese and pepperoni. You’ll have a meat lovers pizza thanks to the sauce!
Use this in our ravioli lasagna and you’ll really turn your pasta into a protein packed dish.
This is perfect over spaghetti, penne, or any other shape of noodle as well.
This would also be tasty in our Crockpot Lasagna! Just be sure to add an extra cup of water to the sauce before layering the lasagna, so there is plenty of liquid for the noodles to soak up.
What gives spaghetti sauce flavor?
Loads of garlic, plenty of Italian seasonings like basil, oregano, and rosemary, and a mixture of beef and pork.
I use a jar of Italian Seasoning – it’s just a blend of herbs. You can put in a mix of your favorite Italian herbs instead if you like or add in fresh herbs.
The beef and pork in this spaghetti sauce recipe add a delicious richness to the sauce and they get so tender as they simmer away for hours with the sauce.
I don’t drain the fat from the meat after cooking as that helps add flavor to the sauce as well.
Feel free to also stir in some red pepper flakes or a splash of red wine to add even more flavor.
FAQs:
It sounds strange to add sweetness to a savory recipe, but just like you’d never bake cookies without balancing the sweetness with a pinch of salt, you often want to balance the acidity of tomatoes with a pinch or two of sugar.
Feel free to adjust the sugar to suit your needs, but I recommend adding at least a pinch to really balance the flavors and bring it all together.
This spaghetti sauce thickens as it cooks. Just keep simmering and the liquid in the tomatoes will evaporate a bit. The sauce turns out perfect for tossing your pasta.
This recipe makes enough to generously coat two pounds of pasta. If you won’t be using that much sauce at one time, store leftovers tightly covered in the refrigerator for 4-5 days or freeze for up to 4 months.
MORE HOMEMADE ITALIAN RECIPES!
- Baked Manicotti
- Chicken Caprese
- Italian Pasta Salad
- Sausage Tortellini Soup
- Baked Chicken Parmesan
- Homemade Italian Dressing
If you love this recipe, be sure to try my Alfredo sauce too!
Homemade Spaghetti Sauce
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound ground beef
- 1/2 pound ground pork see notes
- 1 medium onion finely diced
- 6 cloves garlic minced
- 56 ounces canned crushed tomatoes
- 6 ounces tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons Italian seasoning
- 1 tablespoon sugar or to taste
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Instructions
- In a large pot over medium heat, cook the ground beef and pork until no longer pink. Do not drain.
- Add the onion and garlic to the pot with the meat and cook over low heat until the onions are soft and the garlic is fragrant.
- Add the remaining ingredients to the pot and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 2-4 hours.
- Taste and add additional sugar, salt, or red pepper as desired.
Tips & Notes:
Nutrition Information:
This recipe was originally published in November of 2012. It’s been updated July of 2019. Original photo below.
Richard Tunner says
It’s great SPAGHETTI sauce recipe, thank you for sharing this recipe, It’s looking so tasty.
Claudia says
Could you make this in an instant pot to speed up the 2-4 hour cooking time?
Karly says
I’ve never tried this one in the Instant Pot.
Gilles Landry says
You said : ” cook the ground beef and pork until no longer pink. Do not drain”. Even though the flavor of the meat is mainly in the fat, I prefer throwing the fat and replace it with extra virgin olive oil. That’s Italian taste and almost cholesterol free. Talk to your doctor…
Hanoi says
I make it just like that, i like to add some red wine to the meat just before the onions and garlic and let the alcohol to evaporates 🙂
Anonymous says
??????????????????????iphone3GS ???????????????????????????????????????|????????????????????????????? ???????????????????
Toby L Fox says
I have made a lot of spaghetti but this looks so good. I just printed the recipe because I’m going to try this one. I noticed you didn’t use a Lot of spices but what kind of Italian seasoning did you use? Thanks,
Mrs Toby Fox
Combat enantbolic says
Focuses on the selling of anabolic usefulness of anabolic steroids.:
these figures an easy to use inexperienced bike of which will lend plenty of better volume in case you have for
no reason cycled prior to. Warnings About inexperienced pass Testosterone enanthate has the
unparalleled chance of enhancement the purely natural growth of male growth hormone to a tremendous altitude.
Additionally, this anabolic steroid (with the multitude of testosterone) is additionally great for campaign the best imaginable
weight loss and thrilling fast recovery after unnecessary activity
and exercise exercise sessions. Hundreds customers source Testosterone
propionate a somewhat effective service. steroid for making multitude and are able to
make anyone to right away alter Low levels of androgenic
hormone or testosterone can bring about lesser sexual urge, impotence , sterility outcome diminished semen creation, lessened
psychological and training, weariness and weakening of limbs ( poor bone health ).
Androgenic hormone or testosterone is provided with as alternative treatment plan in case drug free
libido levels fit very humble, producing difficulty such as those previous.
Testosterone supplement helps fresh the male growth hormone degree to return to healthy, so minimizing signs coming from lack.
Sabrina says
You said not to drain the meat, do you use lean ground beef? What if there’s a lot of grease?
Karly says
I like the flavor that the fat adds to the sauce. You can drain it if you like, though. I usually buy 80/20 beef.
A.J. says
should you strain the water out of the cans before adding the tomatoes?
Karly says
You can if you want a thicker sauce, but you don’t need to. I don’t drain them. 🙂
Rose says
Makes it even more work for the cook but I use fresh tomatoes this time of year and the sauce is even more tasty. Try it — you’ll like it.
Karly says
@Rose,
I bet that’s delicious!
Myrtle Beach Fishing Guides says
Thank you for any other wonderful post. Where else may anybody get that kind of
info in such an ideal method of writing? I have a presentation next week, and I’m at the search for such information.
Holly says
I don’t really like a chunky sauce, I even toss jarred sauce in the processor sometimes. Could I do the same with the canned tomatoes for this recipe and it still be ok? I know if I use the crushed tomatoes they will cook down a bit, but I still just don’t like a bite of tomato in my sauce!
It looks FABULOUS!!!! Definitely going to have this going one day!
Karly says
@Holly,
You can totally process this to make it smoother. No problems. 🙂
Airport Transfers South Mimms says
I know this website offerss quality based articles and additional information, is there any other web page which offers thsse kiinds of information in quality?
http://tinyurl.com/obtku6k says
For the interest of creating a related product comparisons, we’ve looked at
routers in this range that discuss similar aspects such as IEEE 802.11n wifi standards, 2.4 GHz band and double antennas.
Nothing significantly less than an n layer 3 switch should be considered, if you’re looking for a new
router. It will be a good idea to improve into a wireless n layer 3 switch,
for those who own a wireless-g router. The latest routers additionally increase speed with
Wi-Fi Quality of Service applications (QoS) regular, which
makes efficient use of Ethernet connections by prioritizing multimedia visitors according to the application’s sensitivity to delay.
Many wireless n routers additionally use multiple-input and several-output (MIMO) radio antennae to boost speeds.
?????????????? ?????? says
Way cool! Some extremely valid points! I
appreciate you writing this post and also the rest of the website
is also very good.