Easy Homemade Spaghetti Sauce
This is our family's go-to spaghetti sauce recipe. It's very easy to make and tastes like it's been simmering for hours even though it only takes just over 30 minutes to make. We have a few tips on how to make this quick spaghetti sauce the best ever. With some ground beef and a few pantry staple ingredients, you can have a delicious dinner on your table in no time!
Our easy homemade spaghetti sauce
This is the spaghetti sauce recipe that we make 98% of the time when we're craving pasta. It's very easy to make and we usually have all the ingredients on hand. I like to eat mine with zucchini noodles and make some real spaghetti for my family. When we want to treat ourselves, I'll cook some store-bought refrigerated pasta – it's what you see in the pictures.
- This spaghetti sauce is rich and meaty.
- It tastes like it's been simmering for hours.
- Even though it takes only a little over half an hour to make.
- Made with 7 basic ingredients that you probably will find in your kitchen right now.
- Sugar-free, thanks to two little tricks.
- It's a healthy pasta sauce that's high in protein and has only 209 calories per 1-cup serving.
How to make spaghetti sauce
Making a pot of spaghetti sauce is almost as easy as opening a jar and about 1 million times tastier. It's worth the extra effort.
- Saute onion and garlic until nice and dark brown.
- Now add some tomato paste to the pot and let it cook for a few minutes.
- Then the ground beef goes into the pan.
- Once the beef is cooked, add a can of crushed tomatoes and some Italian seasoning and dinner is ready!
READ MORE: Fresh Summer Spaghetti
Tips for making the best spaghetti sauce
This may be a quick spaghetti sauce recipe, but I promise you that it tastes like it's been simmering on the stove for hours. Here's how to make it taste the best:
- Mince the onion as small as you possibly can. You don't want big chunks of onion here. You want the smallest pieces so when it's cooked it almost melts right into the sauce.
- Saute the onion until it is very well browned and caramelized. This step is crucial for giving the sauce that “simmering for hours” taste.”
- Caramelize the tomato paste. Once you add it to the pot, let it cook for 3-4 minutes. It will darken and become sweet-smelling and add a lot of flavor to the sauce. It also adds sweetness, which is why we don't need to add any sugar to our sauce.
- Use a hardy beef to tomato ratio. This rich bolognese sauce gets much of its flavor from the beef. Don't skimp and use less beef or more tomatoes or the sauce will change entirely.
Spaghetti sauce ingredients
There are 7 ingredients in this sauce and you're likely to have all of them in your kitchen right now.
- Olive oil
- Onion
- Garlic
- Tomato paste
- Ground beef
- Canned tomatoes
- Italian seasoning (this is our favorite Italian seasoning!)
Is spaghetti sauce a healthy recipe
Yes! This sauce is high in protein and low in calories and made with all real ingredients. And because we add sweetness with the caramelized the onion and tomato paste, this is a sugar-free spaghetti sauce.
For a truly healthy dinner, we like to serve this with zucchini noodles.
Easy Pasta Recipes
- Fresh Summer Spaghetti
- Drunken Red Wine Spaghetti with Spicy Chorizo and Black Kale
- Healthier Creamy Tortellini Soup
- Warm Caprese Pesto Pasta
- Sage Pumpkin Pasta Bake with Kale and Buttered Pecans
- 20 Minute Lemony Smoked Salmon Pasta
Homemade Spaghetti Sauce
If you love this recipe as much as we do, let us know with a 5-star rating!
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 large onion, very finely minced
- 3 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 5.5 ounce can tomato paste
- 2 lb lean ground beef
- 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook until it begins to soften, about 3 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until it is well caramelized, about 10 minutes more. Add the garlic and stir then push everything to the side of the pot.1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 large onion, 3 cloves garlic
- Add the tomato paste to the pot and let it cook until it darkens and becomes sweet smelling, about 3-4 minutes. Add the ground beef and cook until it is no longer pink.5.5 ounce can tomato paste, 2 lb lean ground beef
- Add the crushed tomatoes and Italian seasoning and bring the pot to a simmer. Season to taste with salt and pepper.28 ounce can crushed tomatoes, 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning, Salt and pepper
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I don’t eat red meat or pork. Can I use minced chicken?
Ground chicken works great! It’s slightly lighter tasting, but still delicious!
Great Recipe ! love it.
This was so good! Loved how simple it was to make and it had so much flavor. Everyone raved about it!
Love it! So happy everyone loved it!
I really want to try this recipe but I don’t eat beef. Will it be alright if I changed it to pork?
You could definitely use pork, but I would recommend changing the method a little. Pork is much fattier so I think that it would be best if cooked in a separate pan and then drained of the fat before adding it to the sauce. 🙂
I made the recipe and loved it. I used less meat however, 2 lbs being a lot for one can of tomatoes, and added a 1/2 jar of tomato coulis. It still came out nice and thick.
My only question…Step 2, when you add the meat to the cartelized tomato paste, how do you know the meat is cooked until “no longer pink” when it’s mixed in with the paste? Am I missing something?
Delicious though, and, yes, easy.
So happy to hear you liked the recipe! I find that I can still see the color of the meat even with the tomato paste in the pot.:)
Made this tonight & even my picky teen loved it. Delicious & just as simple as it says. I only had 1 pound of ground beef, but it was still delicious!
That’s so wonderful to hear! I’m so happy that it was a hit!