My Favorite Meat Sauce Recipe
Looking for a new dish for your dinner rotation? Spaghetti with meat sauce is one of my family’s favorite weeknight meals! My recipe comes together in one pot on the stove, and it’s just as easy as making sloppy joes (another family favorite!).
Why you’ll love it:
Incredible flavor: my recipe has a classic, restaurant-quality flavor that is so much better than anything from the store. Freezes well: this recipe is great for making ahead for an even quicker weeknight meal. Simple: most of the time in this recipe is spent letting the sauce simmer (I use this time to get the kitchen straightened up and table set!). One pot dish means minimal clean-up!
I focused a lot on flavor when developing this meat sauce recipe. So many recipes or store-bought sauces fall flat, but I promise you this one doesn’t. It has depth from the garlic and the seasoned meat, body from the wine (this can always be substituted with broth), and plenty of fresh basil as the cherry on top. Trust me, you’re going to want to try this!
What You Need
I carefully selected these ingredients so this meat sauce recipe would be FULL of flavor! Here are the most important ones you’ll need today.
Ground beef. Ground beef is a classic choice, but you could switch things up and use half or all Italian sausage instead. Sweet Italian sausage would be my choice, but if you like a little spice or are an arrabiata sauce fan, spicy Italian sausage would work well too. Canned tomatoes. Whole tomatoes work best here and are my preference, I love using them in many of my sauce recipes including my vodka sauce. I recommend grabbing san marzano tomatoes if you can find them. In a pinch, you could substitute an undrained can of crushed tomatoes. Spices. Including parsley, oregano, basil, crushed red pepper, black pepper, and a bay leaf. I personally love using fresh basil here (the flavor is unparalleled), but I know not everyone has access to it, so I made sure to include measurements for fresh or dry. Wine. Dry red wine in a classic choice here, but a cooking wine will work too. Or, if you’d prefer to skip the wine altogether, you can use beef, vegetable, or chicken stock instead. Pasta. I think spaghetti works really well here, but you can use your favorite pasta. I include instructions for stirring the pasta right in or serving separately.
SAM’S TIP: A tablespoon of sugar might seem out of place here, but it helps counteract the acidity of the tomatoes without making this sauce taste sweet (just like in my tomato soup and ziti recipes. You always could skip this, but I recommend adding it for best results. Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Spaghetti with Meat Sauce
SAM’S TIP: Reserve ¼ cup of the pasta water and use a few splashes to help the pasta and sauce combine easier. This creates a glossy, perfectly textured sauce that clings to the noodles. Don’t forget to serve your spaghetti and meat sauce with some garlic knots or breadsticks on the side! Enjoy! Let’s cook together! Subscribe to my newsletter and make sure to follow along on YouTube where I have over 500 free video tutorials! 💜
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