Category: Pasta

Mmm...Spaghetti.  Who doesn't love spaghetti?  Growing up my mom always made homemade spaghetti sauce.  While it may not be super fancy it is delicious and I still love it.  We never had jared sauce in the house and I didn't realize that people used spaghetti sauce from a jar until I was probably in high school; it was just unheard of in our house. This is the first dish I ever learned how to make from my mom. This quick and easy homemade spaghetti sauce is great when you need comfort food and the leftovers are perfect for lasagna.

Another easy thing about this recipe is that it's easy to keep stock of all of the ingredients in your pantry/freezer.  I usually try to have a few cans of tomato products in the pantry and a pound of ground beef in the freezer for when I don't have much else and don't want to go to the store.  It's a pretty easy and impressive dinner to put together with pantry staples.

The first step in this recipe is to brown the ground beef; ground turkey or chicken would also work if you don't like beef or are looking for a leaning meat.  Once the meat has browned, drain the grease.

Now the fun begins and you can start actually making the sauce.  Add all of the tomato products, one can at a time.  Save the empty sauce and paste cans to use to add water to the sauce.

Fill the sauce cans 1/2 full with water and add to the pan.  Fill the paste can completely full with water and add to the pan.

After all of the tomato products have been added, add the minced garlic to the sauce and give it a good stir around.

The spices come in next and can be adjusted to taste.  I like a lot of basil so I usually add 1.5 Tablespoons basil and 1/2 Tablespoon each of oregano and thyme.  Italian Seasoning can also be used for simplicity, I would probably substitute 2-3 Tablespoons of that in replace of the individual spices.

The final two steps of this recipe are to add 1 Tablespoon of sugar to cut some of the acid from the tomatoes and add some cheese because everything is better with cheese.  I like using the grated Parmesan cheese that comes in a plastic container (shake cheese) because I feel like it melts and joins with the sauce the easiest.  If you use freshly shaved or grated cheese then it tends to form a cheese ball/mess.  I do add the fresh stuff to my bowl of pasta before digging into it though.