Move that jarred stuff to the side and feast your food-loving eyes on this beaut. Homemade Spaghetti sauce is where it’s at, folks. It takes a little bit of work, but it’s WELL worth it in the end!
This homemade spaghetti sauce recipe was originally posted in 2013 and I’m bringing it back to front of the blog with a brand new video! Woot woot!
But first, let’s get real for a minute.
I’ve been at this blogging thing for a while now and quite frankly, I’ve been getting increasingly bored. Maybe you’ve picked up on it over the past few months as my posts are been few and far between and little gems like this post have surfaced. (BTW, make that recipe.) I’ve really struggled this year to find my stride here and muster up the motivation to create, photograph, and share recipes. It wasn’t hard before– It was fun. It was exciting, even. But now, not so much.
Maybe it’s because it’s turned into a full-blown job. I didn’t intend for this blog to ultimately make it possible for my husband to attend grad school and not have to work when I started this. It’s absolutely incredible that this is what it’s become and I feel so, so blessed that it did. I also feel like that fact alone should fuel my enthusiasm, but it doesn’t.
I’ve loved blogging. I really have, and honestly I still do. I love the freedom it gives me. I love the people I’ve met because of it. I love the things that I’ve learned. But I need a change. Not a shut-the-blog-down-change. I’d equate that to telling one of my children I’m not interested in being their mother anymore– It’s too sad to even entertain the idea. But a change, nonetheless.
Enter YouTube.
After many frustrating talks with the hubs about where I should go with the blog and what I should do next, we kept coming back to video. I never thought I’d jump on the YouTube wagon. I feel much more comfortable behind a keyboard and a screen than I do in front of a camera, vulnerable and performing.
But you know what? It’s kind of awesome. As I set up the shoot and my 10 year old played the role of “production assistant” and gave me the thumbs up or down and made me completely loose my train of thought while I was talking on camera, I realized how much fun I was having and that I needed to do it more.
So yes, I’m only one video in and yes, it was a poop-ton of work– like 10 times the amount of work a blog post takes! But I’m having fun and that excitement I had when I first started Heather Likes Food is coming back! yay.
Looooooong story short, a lot of my energy is going to be focused on video now. I’ll still be making a blog post for every video I make, but fully dedicated blog posts will be hit or miss for at least the next little while.
I hope you’ll come with me on this fun little adventure I’m going on and subscribe to my channel on YouTube. It’s a little bit scary to put myself out there this way, but what’s the worst that can happen? … don’t answer that. Ha!
Homemade Spaghetti Sauce
Besides the fact that this sauce is delicious, I love that this recipe makes a TON. We generally eat it for dinner once, spoon enough of it into a freezer bag for another meal somewhere down the road, and save a few cups of it in the fridge for easy leftovers or other kitchen endeavors. It's double-duty recipes like these that I love to keep on hand for busy school nights and whenever my motivation to cook dinner runs dry.
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 cups onion, chopped and divided
- 1 red pepper, coarsely chopped
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 pound italian sausage
- 5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 1 12 oz. can tomato paste
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 teaspoons black pepper
- 3 teaspoons dried oregano
- 3 teaspoons dried basil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
- 1 pinch red pepper flakes
- 2 14-oz. cans Italian-style stewed tomatoes
- 2 28-oz. cans crushed tomatoes
- 8 oz fresh mushrooms, sliced
- 2 cups beef broth
- 1/4 C brown sugar
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
Instructions
- Heat olive oil over medium high heat. Add ½ of the onions and saute until translucent and slightly browned. Add garlic and stir constantly for 1 minute. Add beef and sausage and cook until no red remains. Drain excess fat off of the cooked meat and return to the pan
- Place the remaining onions and red pepper in a blender or food processor and blend until mostly smooth. Add mixture to the garlic, onions and beef and stir to combine, cooking for another minute. Add tomato paste and spices and cook for 1 minute, stirring until combined. Add tomatoes, beef broth, sugar and mushrooms. Stir until combined and add the bay leaves and balsamic vinegar.
- Bring to a boil and then reduce to low and simmer for 1 hour up to 3-4. The longer it simmers, the more flavorful it will get. The sauce will seem watery at first, but as it simmers it will thicken.
by Heather Cheney
Made this recipe?I'd love to see how you rocked it! Share your photo on Instagram with the hashtag #heatherlikesfood --It will totally make my day to see it!
Click here for the Cheesy Garlic Bread and Balsamic Vinaigrette recipes talked about in the video.
Thanks. It looks good. Pinned!
I’ve always wanted to make spaghetti sauce from scratch but never saw a recipe that seemed to appeal to me. One thing I don’t like is chunks of tomatoes and this one doesn’t look that bad.
Another trick I’ve learned with spaghetti sauce is to add shredded carrots to it. They add very little in terms of flavor but it’s a great way to get some additional veggies in your diet.
I often add carrots into my pasta sauces too! It adds a nice sweetness and you can’t tell that they’re there usually. You could even sub italian petite diced tomatoes to this if you didn’t like the size of the stewed tomatoes.
Honestly, I’d probably just take the stick blender to the stewed tomatoes.
I’ve found that another great way to add extra veggies to a tomato sauce is to roast an eggplant until it turns to mush, then scoop it out and stir into the sauce . It adds sweetness and body, too.
Love spaghetti, This sauce sounds very good:) Save for me too:)
Just made this and it is now sitting on my stove! A bit more work than i anticipated but hopefully the end results will be worth it!! My husband tried some already and said it was pretty good! Thanks
This looks really good. Do you think it would work in the crock pot?
For sure. Just brown the meat with the onion and garlicand throw it all in the crock pot to simmer for a while. The longer it cooks, the more flavor it will have!
It’s simmering away.. The house smells amazing!!
Can’t wait for dinner!
This recipe does make a big pot of sauce. I filled two large containers and put them in the freezer for future meals. No complaints on the sauce. Everyone liked it and went back for seconds.
I made this and loved it. The only thing I did wrong was bought ground thyme and I think using 1.5 teaspoons was too much since it was ground. I will def. make this again, but will season the sauce to my taste to make sure it is perfect next time 🙂 Did you use ground thyme or another? I thought it was the only thyme available..LOL! Oops.
Oh no! Yeah, ground thyme will make the whole thing taste like thyme sauce! I used whole dried thyme- it’s not nearly as concentrated.
Thanks for replying Heather. Now, I know what I did wrong and what spice was too overpowering. I cannot wait to make it again. I froze half of it and then used it the other day. It was still great 🙂
This sauce is absolutely the best! Is is delicious!!! I always make a mess in my kitchen when cooking but this recipe is well worth it!! Thanks!
So glad to hear, Susan! It’s one of our favorites too!
would this be good if you made 1/2 the amount. it sounds like it makes too much for us but would love to try it.
This a very good recipe!!
Paige the avon lady
http://www.youravon.com/paigethompson
Made this spaghetti sauce last night & it’s SOOOO GOOD! My super chef-y husband got home from work, tried it & immediately grabbed bread & started dipping it into the pot on the stove. I’m saving it and using it in the Tortellini Soup recipe tonight. Can’t wait to try more of your recipes! Thanks for sharing!!
I made this recipe last night! It was awesome! When I prepared the onion/red pepper mixture I only used about a tablespoon because I have a mild allergy to peppers (mostly when cooking them). I also did about half of the mushrooms. Turned out awesome! For people who might not like the chunks of tomatoes (I don’t either!), I chopped mine up with the spatula like you would ground beef and they were much less chunky.
Thanks a ton!
So glad it turned out well, Lindsey!
This recipe sounds good ! I’m going to try it today !
Haven’t tried any thing yet but it looks good
I have made this sauce about 4 times already and we love it. Although I leave out the red pepper since I don’t like red pepper. After eating this sauce, I can’t even eat spaghetti at a restaurant anymore, because this is so much better. I also use diced Italian tomatoes instead of stewed Italian tomatoes cause I like the smaller chunks of diced. So glad I found this recipe. And it makes enough to freeze some for later.
I made this spaghetti sauce today for dinner tonight. It was absolutely delicious!!
My husband who is not a huge fan of italian even commented on how good the sauce was. I followed the recipe exactly but next time I will chop the italian stewed tomatoes into smaller pieces. I prefer smaller chunks of tomatoes in my sauce. I allowed it to simmer about 2 hours. The house smelled so good while it was simmering.
The recipe made a big 6 quart pot of sauce so after the sauce cooled I distributed it in 1 quart jars with seal and ring and froze the sauce. It will be the just right for recipes that call for a 28 oz. jar of spaghetti sauce. After eating this sauce I will never use jarred sauce again!!
Thank you so much for sharing this great recipe!
i’ve been making this recipe for the last year and i LOVE it. i can’t fathom going back to jarred sauces ever again. it makes plenty so i always freeze half and use it for lasagna later. sometimes i use all italian sausage for some umph and i cut back on the sugar. but my family loves it. especially my picky toddler. thanks so much for sharing this.
Wow! Great to find a post with such a clear mesegas!
This looks and sounds so good i can’t wait to try it. I did want to make sure on one of the ingredients though. You mentioned adding red pepper, would that be the red bell pepper or a hot pepper?
My son likes to make homemade sauce also so i’m going to share this recipe with him. I know we’re all going to love it and i’m so happy i found your blog. It all looks like our kind of food.
Thanks