How to Make Spaghetti Meat Sauce

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by Nancy

4 Comments

When cooking this delicious spaghetti meat sauce, the house smells heavenly.

This spaghetti sauce recipe has been around a long time in my family.

Each generation changes it up just a bit.

My grandmother made it with ribs, my mother made it with ground and shredded beef, and I make it with 3 different types of ground meat (pork, beef and turkey).

I also add a bit of spice to my version by including a Serrano chili pepper.

About this Recipe

The one thing each generation has in common when making this homemade spaghetti sauce is using canned tomatoes and canned tomato sauce.

This spaghetti sauce is great to make for friends and family because the house smells so good when it’s cooking.

When this spaghetti sauce is cooking, the first thing that guests say when they come in the house is “it smells so good in here“.

Serving

Since this meat sauce is on the thicker side, it pairs well with longer noodles such as spaghetti pasta, angel hair (capellini), linguine, bucantini and fettuccine.

I’ve also served it with rigatoni, ziti and penne pasta and it tastes wonderful.

When serving, top the sauce and pasta with grated Parmesan or Romano cheese (or a combination of both).

And don’t forget the garlic bread…spaghetti and homemade garlic bread are a match made in heaven (recipe links for garlic bread are located at the end of this post).

Freeze Leftover Meat Sauce

It’s great to make a large batch of this sauce because it lasts nicely in the freezer.

Freezing this sauce in portion-size containers is especially appreciated on those busy nights when the last thing there is time for is cooking dinner.

Just defrost a container of spaghetti sauce, warm it up in a pot, boil up some pasta and wella, a delicious homemade dinner is served.

Let’s check out the ingredients.

Tomato sauce, canned cut tomatoes, tomato paste, celery, bell pepper, onion, Serrano pepper, garlic, olive oil, water, Worcestershire sauce, dried parsley, dried oregano, dried basil, bay leaves, salt, pepper and…

…ground beef, ground turkey and ground pork…

…mushrooms and olive oil

HOW TO MAKE THIS RECIPE

A printable recipe with the measurements and instructions is located at the bottom of this post.

Spaghetti Sauce Ingredients

Chop the Vegetables and Garlic:

Chop all of the celery, including the leaves from the innermost section.

Add the chopped celery to a large bowl.

Slice the mushrooms in fairly thin slices…a little thicker than about 1/8 of an inch wide.

Add the mushrooms to the bowl.

To the bowl, add chopped onion, bell pepper, Serrano pepper, and garlic.

Set aside for a moment.

Sauté the Vegetables and Garlic:

In a large saucepan, add olive oil and heat the pan on medium heat.

To the pan, add the chopped vegetables.

Let the vegetables cook for 10 minutes while stirring about every 3 minutes.

Canned Cut Tomatoes, Sauce and Paste:

While the vegetables are cooking…

In the bowl that the chopped vegetables were in, add the cut tomatoes.

With a potato masher or a clean hand, mash them up a little.

Set aside for a moment.

After the chopped items have cooked for about 10 minutes, add the cut tomatoes to the pot.

Stir all of the ingredients.

To the pot, add tomato sauce and tomato paste.

To the empty cans of tomato sauce, add water and stir (to get any excess tomato sauce that is left inside of the cans); add this water to the sauce and stir.

Seasonings:

To the pot, add Worcestershire sauce, parsley, oregano, basil, salt, and pepper.

Stir together.

Turn the heat down to low and continue to stir occasionally while cooking the meat in another pan.

Ground Meat:

To a large skillet add the ground meat and pepper.

Heat the skillet on medium heat and stir.

Using a heat resistant spatula or end of a wooden spoon, break up the ground meat so that it’s all about the same size.

Continue cooking until the meat starts to brown.

Transfer the ground meat onto a paper towel-lined plate to absorb any excess grease.

To the sauce, add the cooked meat and stir.

Bay Leaves:

To the pot, add bay leaves and stir.

Simmer the Sauce

Let simmer for at least 3 hours.

Continue to stir every 20 minutes or less.

Here’s how the sauce looks after cooking for about 3 hours.

The sauce will reduce, thicken, and the ingredients should blend together nicely.

Remove the bay leaves before serving.

Serve

Serve warm…

…over spaghetti pasta, angel hair (capellini)…

…linguine, bucantini or fettuccine.

When serving, top the sauce and pasta with grated Parmesan or Romano cheese (or a combination of both).

Add a side of garlic bread (easy homemade garlic bread recipes below) and…

…dinner is served.

Thank you so much for stopping by CCC!

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