Easy homemade spaghetti sauce with Italian sausage is bursting with flavor and perfect for a weeknight dinner. Fresh ingredients simmered low and slow to perfection create a restaurant-quality sauce that will have your family begging for seconds.
In addition to serving it with spaghetti, this meat sauce is equally good served over different pasta. I also use it in lasagna and baked ziti for a hearty, flavorful meal. Freeze any leftovers for a quick and satisfying weeknight meal.
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Thick and Flavorful: Long-simmering helps to thicken the sauce naturally, reducing the water content and concentrating the flavors. This thick sauce perfectly coats the pasta for a genuinely satisfying bite.
- Tender Sausage: With three hours of simmering the sausage breaks down and becomes melt-in-your-mouth tender.
- Versatile Sauce: This meat sauce is great for more than spaghetti. It's also fantastic over lasagna noodles, baked ziti, or even as a dip for crusty bread.
- Amazing Leftovers: This meat sauce is even better the next day. Store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days or even freeze it for up to three months.
Ingredients - Here's What You'll Need
- The Meat: My favorite meat to use in this meat sauce is Italian Sausage. However, you could also use ground beef, ground turkey, or ground pork.
- The Vegetables: The vegetables are simple - onions and fresh garlic.
- The Tomatoes: I used three different canned tomato products - petit diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and tomato paste. Each contributed concentrated tomato taste with subtle differences.
- The Seasonings: For the seasonings, I used dried basil, dried oregano, Kosher salt, and freshly ground black pepper. I also used a bit of light brown sugar to help mitigate the acidity of the tomatoes.
- The Liquids: Rounding out the ingredients were dry red wine and water. During the simmering, the alcohol in the wine cooks off, leaving behind a concentrated flavor without any bitterness.
Making the Meat Sauce - Step-by-Step
- I started by browning and crumbling the Italian sausage in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat.
- When the sausage was nicely browned, I dumped it onto a place lined with paper towels. This allowed a lot of the grease to drain off.
Once the sausage was somewhat cooled, I crumbled it with my hands and transferred the pieces to more paper towels to further drain.
- After I dumped the sausage out of the skillet, I wiped the pan's interior with a paper towel. Then, I returned the pan to the burner set on medium heat and added the onions. I cooked the onions for about 5 minutes until they started to soften.
- Once the onions started to soften, I returned the cooked sausage to the skillet. Then, I added the basil, oregano, salt, pepper, and garlic. I stirred everything together and cooked the mixture for about 30 seconds until the garlic was fragrant.
- Next, I added the "wet" ingredients - petite diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, red wine, and water.
- I stirred everything together, brought the mixture to a slow boil, covered the skillet, and lowered the heat to medium-low.
- I simmered the meat sauce for about 3 hours, stirring it occasionally until it was thick and chunky.
I served the meat sauce over spaghetti with a sprinkling of minced parsley and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. As an added treat, I served it with freshly baked homemade garlic knots and a simple green salad on the side.
Our Italian-themed dinner was truly restaurant-quality. Yum!
Frequently Asked Questions
You can still make a delicious meat sauce if you don't have red wine or prefer not to use it. You could substitute beef broth or even a splash of balsamic vinegar. However, the red wine does add a unique depth of flavor.
Simmering the sauce for an extended period allows the flavors to meld and the sauce to thickens to a perfect consistency. The longer it simmers, the better the flavor will be.
You can make this sauce in a slow cooker. You could also put the ingredients together in an oven-safe pan, and cook the sauce, covered in the oven at 300° until the desired consistency is reached.
Recipe Tips and Tricks
- Use a wine that you would drink. You don't need to use a super expensive bottle of wine, but choose something that's drinkable and affordable.
- I like the meat in my meat sauces to be finely crumbled. Crumbling while cooking can only do so much. Once the sausage has drained and is cool, I like to rub it between the palms of my hands to crumble further
- Resist the urge to crank up the heat to get the sauce simmering faster. A slow simmer allows the flavors to develop and meld together for a richer, more flavorful sauce.
- This meat sauce freezes exceptionally well. Therefore, I sometimes make a double recipe to freeze some for future meals.
Other Italian-Themed Dishes
If you're a fan of Italian type dishes, check out these amazing recipes:
- Easy Sausage and Pepperoni Pizza Pinwheels
- One Pot Creamy Tuscan Chicken - Quick and Easy
- Easy Cheesy No-Knead Mini Focaccia (Small-Batch Recipe)
- Easy Make-Ahead Lazy Lasagna Casserole (A Family Favorite)
- Pizza Roses
- Easy Instant Pot Mushroom Risotto with Green Peas
- Three Cheese Baked Ziti
- Easy Three Cheese Lasagna Cups (Perfect Appetizer)
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Easy Homemade Spaghetti Meat Sauce with Italian Sausage
Equipment
- 12-inch nonstick skillet with lid
Ingredients
- 1 pound (16 ounces) mild Italian sausage (See Tip 1)
- 1 ½ cups chopped onion (1 medium onion)
- 1 ½ teaspoons dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 cloves garlic minced (1 teaspoon) minced (1 teaspoon)
- 14.5 ounce can petite diced tomatoes
- 8 ounce can tomato sauce
- 6 ounce can tomato paste
- ¼ cup dry red wine
- ½ cup water
- 1 teaspoon light brown sugar
Instructions
- Brown Italian sausage in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat, breaking up the meat as it cooks. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain. Allow to cool; rub meat between the palms of your hand to break into small pieces.
- Wipe the skillet with a paper towel to remove any remaining grease. Add onions; sauté over medium heat for about five minutes, until the onions begin to soften.
- Return the sausage to the skillet. Add the basil, oregano, salt, pepper, and garlic. Stir well to combine; cook for 30 seconds or until the garlic is fragrant.
- Add petite diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, red wine, water, and brown sugar; stir well to combine. Bring to a slow boil.
- Cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for three hours, adding more liquid if necessary. (See Tip 2)
- Correct the seasonings if necessary. Yield: 8 servings. (See Tip 3)
Video
Tips/Notes
- If your sausage is in casings, remove the casings before cooking and crumbling.
- Rather than cooking the meat sauce on the stovetop, you can cook it in a slow cooker on the high setting for 5 hours or covered, in a 300°F oven for three hours.
- This makes excellent leftovers. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days, or in the freezer for up to three months.
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