Homemade Spaghetti Sauce Recipe
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There’s nothing better than homemade spaghetti sauce. It beats the sauce in a jar by a mile. Your spaghetti will taste like home if you make this. It’s a great basic cooking skill to put in your skill set.
My daughter LOVES spaghetti, lasagna, ravioli and everything else with marinara sauce. I learned early on in adulthood to make spaghetti sauce from canned tomato sauce. Store bought spaghetti sauce is a little sweet and I hate that. I love homemade spaghetti sauce so much more.
Spaghetti sauce with garden tomatoes
When I started gardening on the years when I had a big glut of fresh tomatoes in the garden, I was trying to figure out what to do with all the excess. One of the things I saw a friend do was make oven roasted tomato sauce.
Freezing tomato sauce
So, I started roasting my tomatoes and freezing the sauce. Then I could just take out the fresh tomato sauce and turn it into spaghetti sauce with no problem. The longer you cook it the better it tastes, so give it time to really cook.
I freeze my sauce in quarts because that’s the perfect amount for a family dinner. Freezing spaghetti sauce or freezing tomato sauce helps you have fresh tasting sauce for an instant meal. All you have to do is cook the pasta and thaw the sauce. You can freeze spaghetti sauce in ziplock bags. Just fill the bag and leave a little space at the top for expansion. Burp out as much air as possible, and lay it flat on a plate or in a casserole dish in case it leaks. Once it’s frozen, you can stack it in the door or on the shelf of the freezer. Laying the bags flat helps them thaw faster when you’re ready to use them.
You can freeze homemade pasta sauce in any quart container. I like to use deli containers. They are thick and durable, but also stack well. Just remember, as with anything else, to leave an inch of headspace in the container for expansion. You can even freeze spaghetti sauce in mason jars.
Freezer pasta sauce
We like our sauce with meat so here’s how I make it. You can either use a quart of homemade roasted tomato sauce or a quart of canned tomato sauce. I key to getting the best flavor is starting with good sauce and I prefer San Marzano or hunt’s brand tomato sauces. This is one of those times when going with the cheap stuff won’t do it. A quart of canned tomato sauce is two 16-ounce cans.
Homemade Spaghetti Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 T olive oil
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 quart good tomato sauce
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tsp italian seasoning
Instructions
- Start with one finely chopped onion in a few tablespoons of olive oil. Cook it low and slow until it’s translucent.
- Add a pound of thawed ground beef. Cook and stir chopping up the meat until it’s well browned.
- If your meat had quite a bit of fat, drain it off.
- Add tomato sauce, Italian seasoning and crushed garlic
- Cook over low heat at least 30 minutes but up to 4 hours stirring occasionally. If the mixture gets too thick, add a cup of water and cook it down again. Each time you add water and cook it down, the flavor intensifies. The flavor is worth the wait.
Now your sauce is ready to be used on top of the pasta of your choice. It could also be used for sloppy joes. If you want to make pizza sauce, you can use the same recipe but omit the meat. It works great for eggplant parmesan, ratatouille or any other way you can think of. You’re going to love this meat sauce.
Check out how to use it for spaghetti pie or lasagna here.
To make pizza sauce, just make the whole thing without meat. It gives you all the flavors you need for the world’s best pizza sauce. And here are some pizza dishes you can make with it. They are crowd pleasers, kid pleasers, and you will love them too.
One more tip, you could even let this sauce simmer in the slow cooker while you’re away. This helps with your meal planning too.
Check out more things you can make with excess tomatoes from the garden.
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