Homemade spaghetti sauce doesn’t need to be complex or time-consuming to be delicious. You just need good, quality ingredients to make a sauce full of amazing flavor. This recipe is perfect for making large batches to feed a crowd or freezing for quick, easy meals later.
Spaghetti night is a favorite in our house. Everyone loves it and leaves the table satisfied and happy. It’s one of those meals that doesn’t need to be overly complex or time-consuming to be amazing!
For years, I thought homemade spaghetti sauce must be hard to make or at least hard to make really good. So I bought spaghetti sauce in a jar. It wasn’t bad; we enjoyed it. But I finally decided to develop my own recipe for homemade spaghetti sauce that was both easy and delicious. And here it is! I will never go back to spaghetti sauce in a jar again.
Best Tomatoes to Use:
The best spaghetti sauce is made using crushed San Marzano tomatoes. San Marzano is a variety of plum tomatoes with a more robust flavor and are sweeter and less acidic. You can usually find canned San Marzano tomatoes at your grocery store. But there are times I can’t find this variety, so I have used other brands of crushed tomatoes or fire-roasted crushed tomatoes, and the sauce still turns out amazing. So whichever type or brand you use, be sure they are crushed tomatoes.
Adding Meat to the Sauce:
If you like to have meat in your spaghetti sauce, you certainly can add it. I love to use ground pork sausage in my sauce, or you can use ground beef. You can brown the meat with the onions (be sure to cook it thoroughly), draining off the extra fat, or cook the meat separately and add it to the sauce at the end.
We love meatballs with our spaghetti, and my Baked Sausage Meatballs complement this sauce perfectly. The meatballs are full of flavor and baked to perfection! And don’t forget the garlic bread with homemade Garlic Bread Spread!
Freezing Instructions:
It’s easy to freeze any leftovers to use later or make a larger batch with the intent to freeze for future use. Allow the sauce to cool completely, spoon the desired amount into sealable freezer bags, label, and lay flat in your freezer. Once frozen, they stack easily in your freezer.
Thawing and Reheating Instructions:
When you are ready to use the sauce, let it thaw at room temperature for a few hours or in the refrigerator overnight. Then, reheat on the stovetop over medium-low heat until warmed through.
Homemade Spaghetti Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 sweet onion, diced
- 6 garlic cloves, minced, (more or less based on preference)
- 2 28 ounce cans crushed tomatoes, preferably fire-roasted
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1½ teaspoons salt
- 1½ teaspoons dried oregano
- 2 teaspoons dried sweet basil, (1½ tablespoons minced fresh basil)
- ½ cup grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Heat oil over medium to medium-high heat in a large skillet or pot. Add the diced onions and saute for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring frequently. Next, add the garlic and saute for another 1 to 2 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent the garlic from burning.
- Add the crushed tomatoes, sugar, salt, oregano, basil, and parmesan cheese (break up any clumps before adding). Stir well. Bring to a simmer.
- Reduce the heat to medium-low, but maintain a simmer. Simmer for at least an hour to give the sauce time to cook down and thicken.
- Serve over spaghetti noodles. This spaghetti sauce pairs perfectly with my Baked Sausage Meatball recipe.