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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.
Deborah says
I love this recipe. I can’t wait to try it out!!
Lynn Olson says
I would like to know if thos could be done in the crockpot and how long to cook it. Really looking forward to trying this recipe
Karly Campbell says
Hi Lynn! I’m sure you could do it in the crockpot, but you’d still want to brown everything first on the stove. It won’t thicken up as much in the slow cooker, but you could try leaving the lid askew so some of the liquid can evaporate out. I’m not sure how long it will take but I’d plan on 8 hours.
RD says
This looks like it will taste wonderful, but is there another product that would work as a substitution to the canned tomatoes?
Karly Campbell says
I’m sure you could make this with fresh tomatoes as well.
Lannette Rogers says
If canning it how long to pressure can?
Karly Campbell says
We don’t have any experience with canning and can’t offer advice on that.
Mary Hayward says
65 minutes with meat if your using quart jars.
Elena says
Delicious and simple to make. Left a jar in the fridge and froze some for later. Thank you for the great recipes, Karly!
Karly Campbell says
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks, Elena! 🙂
Mike C. says
Try his is very close to mine. I brown meat, onion and garlic then remove. Add olive oil to pot and tomato paste with sugar and brown the paste then add 1/2 cup white wine. Add meat back in along with crushed tomatoes the 1/2 can water. Add 1 tablespoon good balsamic vinegar and simmer for as long as possible.
Karly says
Sounds delicious!
John J Craig says
I made this last night with ground round and added a little extra garlic, because I has 1.25 pounds of the ground round. Added a few extra red pepper flakes as well. It turned out really well after 4 hours of simmering. Thanks for the recipe! I am so happy my mother taught me how to cook. She said, son, if you don’t like what I put on the table, go out and buy yourself what you want and I will help you learn to cook it!
K W says
You have/had a great to mother!
adams says
I love Spaghetti Sauce, it’s great to be able to do it yourself at home, thank you for your videos and tutorials, just follow it and everything is easy.
Ramirez@habitatrestaurant says
HOMEMADE SPAGHETTI SAUCE is great! The ingredients are simple and easy to process, the taste is great, I like it. Thanks for your sharing
M Lloyd Hudson says
Love reading your recipe tales! 😀
Love the recipes themselves as well! <3
Wish I cooked homemade more often than I do, your recipes are certainly great encouragement!
Thank you so much, Miss Karly!
Karly says
Thank you! <3
Richard H Reed says
If you don’t like adding sugar to sauce instead add a whole carrot .Remove and toss when ready to serve.
sheenam @ thetwincookingproject says
Love love love this recipe.
Carla and Robert says
I used to make my own sauce, years ago, prior to my husband and I now having diverticulosis. I know that I will receive replies saying, “Eat what you want and just increase fluid intake and roughage.” OK for some folks, but if the diverticulosis is severe, you will end up with pain and may need antibiotic treatment. If you watch what you eat you can avoid the pain and infection and the treatment needed. Sadly, we can no longer digest the seeds in the tomatoes, thus we use a bottled sauce, I use Prego, but choose your favorite seedless brand of bottled sauce and “doctor” that sauce with extra Italian seasoning, basil, garlic powder, or minced garlic, and finely chopped onions which I saute prior to browning the hamburger.
Luna Regina says
Classic and awesome sauce for weeknight parties. Thanks for recommending great Italian recipes to serve with this sauce, too. I love them, Karly!
Susan Dubose says
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!
Karly says
So glad you tried it and loved it, Susan!!