Easy homemade spaghetti sauce, using ingredients you probably already have in your pantry! This recipe is a family dinner staple!
Spaghetti Sauce
This spaghetti sauce recipe may be the first thing I learned to cook, completely by myself, when I was really young. As I got better at cooking and baking (and because I loved it so much) I can specifically remember two recipes my Mom would let me make all by myself: this homemade spaghetti sauce, and our family's favorite Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies.
She'd be nearby for supervision, but it was a huge confidence boost for me to cook all on my own! And an even bigger confidence boost when my older brothers said they liked the food 🙂
This Homemade Spaghetti Sauce recipe has been a family staple for as long as I can remember. It's really simple and the flavors are fantastic.
This is one of those meals that always tastes amazing–and it's perfect for busy weeknights this time of year! Plus, there's no picky eater that would ever say no to spaghetti!
How to make homemade spaghetti sauce:
First brown the beef and onion. Chop the ground beef finely as you go. After it's browned I often like to add it to my food processor to pulse it once or twice so that it's finely crumbled. It makes the sauce extra smooth (although some people like their spaghettie sauce with larger peices of meat in it,)
Next, add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, seasonings, Worcestershire sauce, and sugar and bring the mixture to a simmer. Add water and simmer for 30 minutes or longer, to get more depth of flavor. The longer you simmer it, the more the flavors will blend together beautifully.
I use this sauce all the time in my Spaghetti Pie, Million Dollar Spaghetti, Slow Cooker Lasagna and Instant Pot Spaghetti.
Spaghetti sauce, marinara sauce and pizza sauce; what's the difference?
There is all sorts of confusion surrounding these terms, but spaghetti sauce, marinara sauce, and pizza sauce are usually all tomato based sauces. Marinara sauce, or pasta sauce is a slow-simmered sauce that is often made with tomatoes, garlic, and herbs. In America, we often refer to marinara as a meatless, tomato-based sauce.
Spaghetti sauce is essentially any sauce that you put on spaghetti. Traditional spaghetti sauce is often just a more complex marina sauce that has additional spices and may be made with meat, vegetables, cheese, etc.
Pizza sauce is typically uncooked and refers to any sauce you put on pizza. This sauce is usually simple, with few ingredients and is meant to cook with the pizza for added flavor.
Tips for making ahead and freezing spaghetti sauce:
This homemade spaghetti sauce can be easily made ahead of time. Store it in the fridge for 3 to 4 days or freeze it. Before freezing spaghetti sauce, allow the mixture to cool completely. Label a gallon freezer bag and fill it with the sauce. Store it on a flat surface so that it freezes into a flat shape that will store easily. Store it for up to 4-6 months. To use, place frozen sauce in a pot and reheat on the stove until warm.
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Recipe
Homemade Spaghetti Sauce
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef (or ½ lb ground Italian sausage and ½ lb ground beef)
- salt and freshly ground black pepper , to taste
- 1 medium onion , chopped
- 15 ounces tomato sauce
- 6 ounces tomato paste
- 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1 Tablespoon dried parsley flakes
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- crushed red pepper flakes , to taste
- 1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 cup water
- 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves (optional)
- spaghetti noodles , for serving
Instructions
- Season ground beef with salt and pepper.
- In a large skillet, add the beef and chopped onion and brown. Drain excess grease.
- Add tomato sauce, tomato paste, Italian seasoning, parsley, garlic powder, crushed red pepper, worcestershire, and sugar to the skillet.
- Stir well to combine and bring to a boil. Add water and stir well.
- Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Add chopped basil before serving, if desired.
- This sauce tastes great in Spaghetti Pie, Million Dollar Spaghetti, Slow Cooker Lasagna and Instant Pot Spaghetti.
Notes
Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?!
RATE and COMMENT below! I would love to hear your experience.
*I originally shared this recipe in September 2015. Updated July 2018.
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I made this sauce for my lasagna. It was the best I’ve ever tasted! Loved it and will continue to make it.
This recipe is seriously delicious, having made sauce hundreds of times this one is a true keeper. I’ve made your recipe about 10 times and it never fails. Thank you
Thank you so much for this keeper of a recipe. I have been looking all over and attempted so many recipes for homemade spaghetti sauce and am so glad to have found ‘THE ONE!’ It is absolutely ‘fantabulous!’ And I love pressing the easy button too!
I’ve tried a number of homemade spaghetti sauces and this is my favorite of all! Thank you so much.
Holy moly!! This is seriously good!! I was nervous that the seasonings wasn’t enough but it packed enough punch!! Soooo yummy and I made a huge batch so I’m sure the flavors will start to deepen and develop over a couple of hours. Thanks for sharing your yummy recipe!!
SO YUMMY and very easy to follow! Thank you!
Even perfect-er with sauteed mushrooms.
It even works when you accidentally use crushed tomatoes instead of tomato sauce. Chef’s Kiss
Is this better with ground sausage as well as beef or just ground beef? Trying to decide which to cook with?
Both are delicious! Using just beef gives it a classic flavor, while adding sausage makes it richer and a little more savory. It really depends on your taste—either way will turn out great!
Took advice from some of the other comments, reduced tomato paste and sugar by 1/2, sub red wine for water. I added green peppers, mushrooms, and canned diced tomato’s bc I like mine garden style. Turned out good!
So I wanted to make a THC infused spaghetti dinner. I had never heard of Lauren or her site prior to my searching out a home made spaghetti sauce.
The sauce was really yummy. I made a slight mistake while making it, but I’ll get to that later.
I had to adjust the recipe slightly so that it could accommodate the (nearly) powdered marijuana. It becomes almost like flour after decarboxylation.
I made a double batch of the recipe, and it is really easy. This is where I made my mistake. I used 1 pound of sausage as meat in the sauce, but also made meatballs. I didn’t really consider that the worcestershire sauce was just there to provide body to the meatballs, and doubled that as well. They aren’t bad, but there is definitely a “did you put worcestershire sauce in this” rather than the “there’s something here that I can’t quite put my finger on” that is the intended effect. Entirely my fault for not thinking ahead of time.
I put 2 grams of activated THC into the bread crumb/spice mixture for the meatballs, seared them in a pan, baked them partially, and then finished them in the sauce.
I added 4 grams of activated THC to the sauce, and simmered it in a slow cooker for 2 1/2 hours in order to blend it throughout.
I ended up with 10 (small) servings of sausage spaghetti meat sauce, each with a single meatball. 200mg of THC per serving. And Lauren’s recipe covered the flavor of marijuana entirely. This can be problematic in many recipes, but not here.
The only part of the recipe that tasted like it was infused was the garlic bread, but that isn’t part of this recipe, or any of Lauren’s recipe, so I won’t discuss that here.
Infused or not, I would definitely recommend this recipe.
Thanks, Lauren! 😉