Spaghetti Sauce
A hearty, delicious, and versatile pasta sauce. You can leave out all the optional ingredients or only add some in any combination and it will always turn out tasty. Makes enough sauce to serve 8-10 portions of pasta.
Ingredients
- 1½ lbs ground meat beef and/or pork, lean to extra lean
- ¼ lb bulk sausage preferred style (optional)
- 1 onion medium, diced fine
- 1 T garlic minced
- ½ cup fresh mushrooms sliced or diced (optional)
- 2 T bell pepper red, yellow, or orange, diced very fine (optional)
- 2 cans tomato sauce 15oz
- 1 can diced or crushed tomatoes 15oz, plain or with onions and peppers
- 2 T worchestershire sauce
- 1 tsp Frank's Hot Sauce (optional)
- ½ cup black olives slided or diced (optional)
- 1 tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp italian seasoning
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- ½ tsp dried thyme
- ½ tsp black pepper
- ½ tsp salt or to taste
Instructions
- In extra large pan on medium-high heat start browning the ground beef and/or pork, and sausage (if using). Add onions, garlic, mushrooms (if using), and pepper (if using), while the meat is still pink, about half cooked. Finish browning the meat, using your utensil to break it up into very small pieces, until the onions are translucent and starting to brown. Drain any excess oil as desired.
- Stir in tomato sauce and tomatoes, along with olives (if using), worchestershire sauce, and Frank's Hot Sauce (if using). Turn down heat so it's at a slow simmer.
- Add onion powder, garlic powder, italian seasoning, basil, oregano, thyme, pepper, and ½ tsp salt. Stir to combine, let simmer for 10-15 minutes to allow flavours to combine, then adjust salt and other seasonings to taste.
- Let simmer for at least 30 minutes; the longer the better.
- Instant Pot Instructions: Use the Saute setting for step 1, then add all the rest of the ingredients, stir completely, and pressure cook on high for 15 minutes. Can use the Keep Warm setting all day if needed.Will be more watery with this method.I've never gotten a burn error, but if you run into it, add ½ cup water and stir well before trying again.
Notes
To serve, spoon over or mix into bowl of, cooked noodles and serve with Parmesan cheese. My family enjoys shredded cheddar and/or mozzarella on their pasta, too.
For best results (for the sauce to stick to the noodles), cook the noodles in pure water, in a pot large enough that the noodles can move around, without any salt or oil added. Cook to desired tenderness, and drain well, don't rinse unless necessary.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!