Last week, I made good use of my pasta maker for the first time, and made some delicious homemade spaghetti noodles. Well, what good is spaghetti without a good sauce to go with it? I made this at the same time, of course, but since I spread out my blog posts, it got to wait a week.
Looks delicious, right?
The beauty of a pasta sauce like this is that it’s incredibly flexible. Want more herbs? Go ahead and add them! Want less garlic, or more garlic, or even more garlic? Go for it! Want to leave out the mushrooms, meat, or both? It’s your sauce, make it however you like.
Here’s what I put in mine.
It doesn’t look like a lot, but it turns into a very flavorful sauce that the homemade noodles paired very well with.
- Meat. I go with the standard ground beef, but I’ve known people who do ground turkey.
- Mushrooms. Simple baby bellas are good enough for a sauce like this, I think.
- Herbs. I had some frozen basil and some dried oregano to add in; fresh, dried, or freeze dried all work.
- Onions and garlic. I’ve used both sweet onions, yellow onions, and spanish onions, and they all work great.
- Tomatoes. I use canned tomato sauce and diced tomatoes as a base, generally the unflavored kind, not the roasted garlic or pre-herbed varieties.
All in all, it’s also a very simple recipe to make. Cook the beef and onions a bit, add the garlic and cook until the meat is done, drain it and add the tomatoes, stir it up and add the spices, and cook to your desired thickness.
If your sauce is too thin, you can thicken it up in a few different ways. If you have the time, simmering it to cook off some of the moisture is the best way to concentrate the flavors. Alternatively, you can mix equal parts corn starch and water (starting with 1-2 tbsp) for a quick thickener, though it might mess with the texture a bit for day two and beyond. Or, you can add some tomato paste.
On the other hand, if your sauce is too thick, you can just add a bit of water, a bit more tomato sauce, or some of the liquid from the diced tomatoes.
The end result should be precisely what you want, and it’s entirely up to you what that is. For me, this is how you do it.
Homestyle Spaghetti Sauce
Equipment
- Dutch Oven
- Rubber Spatula
Ingredients
- 2 Cans Tomato Sauce
- 1 Can Diced Tomatoes Drained
- 4 Cloves Garlic Minced
- 1 Medium Onion Diced
- 1 Lb Ground Beef Or more if you prefer a meatier sauce
- 1 Cup Mushrooms Chopped
- 2 Tsp Oregano
- 2 Tsp Basil
- 1 Tsp Seasoned Salt
Instructions
- In your dutch oven or sauce pan, over medium heat, add the ground beef and onions to start cooking. Cook until the onions are turning translucent, stirring regularly.
- Add the garlic, stir, and cook, stirring regularly, until the meat is done.
- Drain excess grease from the meat.
- Add in the tomato sauce and diced tomatoes, stirring well.
- Mix in the mushrooms, oregano, basil, and salt. Stir together and reduce the heat to medium-low.
- Simmer for at least 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep the bottom from burning.
- Adjust for your preferred thickness (see blog post) and simmer until ready to serve.