Occasionally, I tease my mom for frequently serving spaghetti for dinner. She has done this since I can remember and continues to do so today. What she doesn't know is that I have followed her trend. Shhh..don't tell her! 🙂 I understand why my mom likes to make spaghetti so often. It's a meal loved by many that can be whipped up in a jiffy, especially if using jarred sauce. But, you can quickly put this pasta dish together using homemade sauce if you just prep the sauce in advance.
Since the recipe requires almost 2 hours total of prep and cooking time, I keep this spaghetti sauce in our freezer, stored in zipper bags ready to serve 2-3 people. Because I have the sauce already made, it is still convenient for us to enjoy spaghetti for dinner when we're in a bind and need something fast. In fact, I believe we had spaghetti and this sauce twice this week!
Spaghetti Meat Sauce
Yield: About 10 servings
1 lb sweet Italian sausage
3/4 lb lean ground beef
1/2 cup minced onion
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
dash of nutmeg
In a Dutch oven, heat the sausage, ground beef, onion and garlic over medium heat until the meat is cooked through. Drain any excess grease, if necessary. Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato sauce and water and cook for 1-2 minutes. Stir in the rest of the ingredients. Simmer, covered, for about 1 1/2 hours, stirring occasionally.
Source: AllRecipes
Lauren at Keep It Sweet says
Looks like a delicious sauce! Freezing it is a great idea.
Dishes of Mrs. Fish says
Yum! My husband is Italian and love having pasta! With homemade sauce of course. 🙂
amanda @ fake ginger says
Mmm, that looks fantastic! I love the addition of Italian sausage! BTW, my boys would eat spaghetti every night if I'd let them!
Christina @ Sweet Pea's Kitchen says
This meat sauce looks delicious! I love making my own spaghetti sauce. This one sounds incredible...I need to make it soon! 🙂
sharon noble says
I used to work with your mother in law, Sue --- found
your blog through her mention of you!. I made your spaghetti sauce and it is the best. The brown sugar and spices made it yummy! Everyone also loved the chicken pockets! The mac and cheese was good, too! Thanks for doing such a great job with recipes!
Nikki says
Hi Sharon! So you were blessed to work with dear Sue. 🙂 I'm glad you liked the recipes and thank you for letting me know!
Elodie says
I just wanted to say I love your website! And also, we love spaghetti in our house too! My partner would eat it every day if he could. I have tried to make it slightly healthier by adding finely grated carrot and finely chopped spinach and even sliced champignons. The carrot and spinach are cut so fine they seem to melt into the sauce so you don't even taste them!
Nikki says
Hi Elodie,
What a great idea to add the finely sliced carrots and spinach. I'm going to try that next time! -Nikki
Susan gladd says
Nikki, this must be so yummy and your mom must be so proud of your carrying on her tradition.
Since we are supposed to steer away from wheat and gluten I have been making stir fried zucchini and onions the "pasta" with spaghetti sauce as the topping... With a sprinkle of cheese and cheesy bread crumbs...really yummy!
melissa says
i just made this. soo yummy! love how it's super thick and tomatoey 🙂
Col. Glen Manning says
Sugar in red sauce is an abomination.
Lorie says
I made this last night.. its really good!
Nikki says
Thanks, Lorie! Glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
Laurie says
I made this sauce last night. It was really good. It was sweet which I loved. My husband loves spicy so I am going to try it with hot Italian sausage. It seems like it would also be great. My girls (5 and 3) who love any pasta devoured it. They wanted it for lunch today Thanks for a great recipe.