Meat Sauce
on Sep 30, 2023, Updated Jun 06, 2024
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This delicious homemade Meat Sauce comes together in no time, making it the start of an easy weeknight meal! Made with ground beef, tomato sauce, a white onion, and a blend of tasty Italian flavors, this sauce is perfect to serve over any kind of pasta.
The best thing about this homemade meat sauce is that it’s made with real, simple ingredients! In fact, I almost always have all of the ingredients on hand. This meat sauce is a great base for a variety of meals.
Use this meat sauce on pasta, as the dip for breadsticks, or as the sauce on an Italian sub. Although this sauce isn’t traditional, it sure tastes like it is! It’s bursting with classic Italian flavors that add a sense of freshness to any meal.
Table of Contents
Recipe Ingredients
- Ground Beef—Or sausage for a super rich and savory meat sauce.
- Tomato Sauce—Canned. Will act as the acidic and slightly sweet base of this homemade pasta sauce.
- Tomato Paste—Adds a rich tomato flavor and helps thicken the sauce.
- White Onion—Diced. Adds a ton of bold, aromatic flavor.
- Olive Oil—Perfectly browns the beef and softens the onions.
- Garlic Powder—Or a clove of freshly minced garlic.
- Italian Seasoning—To bring this sauce to life!
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
How to Make Homemade Spaghetti Sauce with Ground Beef
Step #1. Gather the necessary ingredients for homemade meat sauce and chop the onions.
Step #2. Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the ground beef and cook until it is no longer pink.
Step #3. Once the beef is cooked, add the diced onions, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning. Cook until the onions are soft and translucent.
Step #4. Add the tomato sauce and tomato paste. Reduce the heat to low and stir the mixture constantly until it starts to bubble. Remove the pan from the burner, serve the warm sauce over pasta, and enjoy!
Recipe FAQs
Although they have the same tomato base, meat sauce and spaghetti sauce are made with slightly different ingredients. Meat sauce will contain a variety of spices, seasonings, some type of meat, and onions or other vegetables. Spaghetti sauce is typically simpler, with no meat and only a few spices added such as garlic powder and pepper.
This may come as a surprise to many, but Italians traditionally do not eat spaghetti with meat sauce! The well-loved spaghetti and meatballs originates in America, and is not something that you will find Italians eating. They will eat meatballs on their own or add a small amount of meat as a topping or garnish, but typically lean towards more light dishes rather than adding a heavy meat sauce on top of their pasta.
Yes, it is totally worth it to make homemade meat sauce! To me, the biggest difference between spaghetti sauce from a jar and homemade is the depth of flavor that comes from making your own sauce. After tasting this delicious sauce, you will see that it was worth the extra 15 minutes of your time. Allowing each ingredient of the sauce to cook and blend with one another gives you a rich and balanced taste that you just can’t get with sauce in a jar.
How to Store and Reheat Meat Sauce
This delicious homemade meat sauce is best stored in an airtight mason jar for up to 6 days in the fridge. If you decide to make this sauce in bulk, you can store it in the freezer for up to 6 months. Once the sauce is cooled, ladle it into zip-top freezer bags. Carefully squeeze out any excess air, label it with the date, and lay it flat in the freezer! To reheat your sauce, you can microwave it in 10 second increments or warm it up in a pot on the stove!
How to Serve Homemade Meat Sauce
- You can serve this homemade meat sauce over any kind of pasta. It’s most commonly served over spaghetti, but I find that it’s quite delicious over rigatoni!
- Make prepping a homemade lasagna easier by using this meat sauce as one of your layers!
- This sauce is great as a base for toasted mozzarella sandwiches, or as a dip for homemade breadsticks and mozzarella sticks!
Expert Tips
- If you don’t have Italian seasoning on hand, you can easily make your own by combining equal parts of oregano, onion powder, basil, and thyme!
- This recipe makes enough for about 4 people to have a full bowl of spaghetti and meat sauce. You can make this sauce in bulk for a larger group, or to meal prep and freeze for future meals!
- If you like your marinara sauce to be on the chunkier side, you can add a can of diced tomatoes at the same time you add the tomato sauce and paste.
- For a leaner option, or if you don’t prefer the taste of beef, you can use ground turkey as the meat in this spaghetti sauce.
More Pasta Recipes To Consider
Pasta Dishes
Easy Slow Cooker Vegetable Lasagna
Pasta Dishes
Pumpkin Alfredo
Pasta Dishes
Creamy Chicken and Vegetable Baked Pasta
Soups, Stews & Chowders
Pasta Fagioli Soup Recipe
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Meat Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef
- 2 teaspoons olive oil
- ½ white onion, diced
- 2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 30 ounces tomato sauce
- 6 ounces tomato paste
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a skillet or pan over medium heat. After the pan has had a minute to heat up, add the ground beef. Cook until the beef is no longer pink.
- Once the beef is fully cooked, add the diced onions, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning. Cook for an additional 5-6 minutes, or until the onions are soft and translucent.
- Add the tomato sauce and tomato paste. Reduce the heat to low and stir the mixture constantly until it starts to bubble.
- Remove the pan from the burner, adjust the salt and pepper to taste, serve, and enjoy!
Notes
- This sauce is best stored in an airtight mason jar for up to 6 days in the fridge.
- You can make your own Italian seasoning by combining equal parts oregano, basil, onion powder, and thyme.
- This is an easy recipe to make in bulk. This recipe makes enough for about 4 people to have a full bowl of spaghetti and meat sauce.
- If you have fresh garlic, you can use 3 cloves of freshly minced garlic.
- You can sub all or some of the meat for sausage, it’s really good with it in it.
