Homemade Meat Sauce Recipe

Looking for the best homemade meat sauce for your pasta?! I got you covered with this savory, hearty meat sauce recipe! This freezer-friendly pasta sauce is perfect for your favorite pasta dishes and recipes.

Hey Cousins! I have been getting a ton of recipe requests for different pasta dishes lately. Although many of the requests are different, 80% of them have one thing in common – a meat sauce! So today, I will share my recipe for the best homemade meat sauce ever! You can use this easy meat sauce in many pasta dishes. What’s even better is that I’m going to show you how to make the pasta sauce ahead of time and freeze it for later use – which comes in clutch on those busy weeknights! Let’s get started!

An Easy Homemade Spaghetti Meat Sauce

Now, many of y’all are probably sitting there wondering, “But Cousin Rosie, can’t I just buy jarred sauce from the store?” Well, of course you can! However, if you take a little time out of your day to make your own, you won’t regret it. Sure, there are plenty of delicious spaghetti and pasta sauces on the market these days… but none of them hold up to a good ol’ homemade spaghetti sauce recipe.

Making your own meat sauce has a lot of benefits, like:

• Saving money! For the price of 2 or 3 jars of premade sauce, you can make 5-6 jars of your own with one big batch of meat sauce.
• You control the ingredients – you know exactly what’s in your sauce! You can control sodium levels (I use salt-free seasoning in my meat sauce) and calories and add delicious ingredients.
• You can make it and store it! This recipe is super freezer-friendly, so you can always have a flavorful meat sauce on hand anytime you’re craving pasta.

Have I sold you yet?! I promise y’all, the (minimal) time and effort it takes to make this homemade meat sauce recipe is ohhhh so worth it. Has Cousin Rosie ever steered y’all wrong? That’s what I thought 😉 Now let’s get to cookin’!

How to Make Homemade Meat Sauce

Ingredients

This homemade meat sauce uses basic ingredients – they’re affordable and readily available at the grocery store. Here’s the rundown of what you’ll need. Scroll on down to the recipe card to find the complete ingredient list and measurements!

• Ground Beef: I prefer lean ground beef for my meat sauce recipe, but you can easily sub it out with ground chicken, ground sausage, or even ground turkey.
• Onions & Garlic: both are essential aromatics that flavor the meat sauce.
• Tomato Sauce & Crushed Tomatoes: the most essential part of any tomato-based sauce is the tomatoes!
• Bell Peppers: I love the flavor that sweet peppers add to a pasta sauce. If you don’t love peppers, you can leave them out.
• Seasonings: my go-to meat sauce seasonings are Italian seasoning and salt-free seasoning. (Pro-Tip: salt-free seasoning usually contains black pepper. If you’re using regular kosher salt, you’ll also want to add some pepper.)
• Sugar: trust me, y’all! Sugar brings down the acidity levels of the tomato sauce, making it hearty and rich (without having to worry about popping some Tums later)!
• Parmesan Cheese: I love the cheesy, nutty flavor grated Parmesan adds to this sauce while it slow cooks.

What are the best tomatoes for homemade meat sauce?

If you’ve been to the grocery store, well… ever, you probably know there are far too many options for canned tomatoes. Which kind of canned tomatoes are best for homemade sauce?! You don’t want bland, tinny tomatoes that taste like metal; you certainly don’t want mushy, overly salty tomatoes. Whole, diced, or crushed canned tomatoes are the best for homemade pasta sauce. San Marzano tomatoes are the best quality tomatoes for sauce, so if you can find those – scoop them up!

Instructions

Ready to learn how to make the most flavorful meat sauce? This one-pot recipe is so easy that you’ll be making it regularly to keep your freezer stocked. All you need is a large Dutch oven or deep stew pot. The recipe below is a double batch, so you can use a smaller pot if you’re making less.

1. Brown the ground beef in the pot on the stovetop over medium heat until cooked through. Drain the fat, then add the diced onions, garlic, peppers, and seasonings to the pot. Stir to make sure everything is well combined.
2. Next, add the diced tomatoes and tomato sauce to the pot. Stir everything to combine.
3. Next, add water to thin the sauce (don’t worry – the sauce will cook down to the perfect consistency) and sugar (this won’t sweeten the sauce, just neutralize the acidity of the tomatoes). Finally, add the grated Parmesan cheese and stir until everything is well combined.
4. Bring the meat sauce up to a light boil, then turn the heat down to low and let the sauce simmer – uncovered – for at least 45 minutes to one hour.
5. Serve immediately over your favorite pasta, or let the sauce cool to room temperature before portioning out and freezing the batch.

There you have it – the easiest homemade meat sauce recipe! When I make this meat sauce, I make A LOT. It’s usually enough to fill FIVE quart-sized freezer bags! This is a great recipe to have on hand when you’re craving hearty pasta or a tasty homemade pasta recipe but don’t want to settle for jarred sauce. Simply let the sauce thaw, and use it in any pasta recipe your heart desires.

Watch how I make my homemade meat sauce recipe below!

Recipes to Make with Homemade Meat Sauce

Think of all the time you can save when you want to make a quick pasta recipe – all you have to do is heat this meat sauce, and you’re there! How easy is that?! Here are some of my favorite pasta recipes to make with this easy homemade meat sauce:

• Thaw, heat, and pour over your favorite pasta – spaghetti, rotini, tortellini, ravioli, you name it!
• Hearty Spaghetti and Vegetables
• Baked Ziti
• Classic Lasagna or Lasagna Roll Ups
• Cheeseburger Mac
• Stuffed Shells

Recipe Tips and Tricks for the Best Homemade Meat Sauce Recipe

Want to make this homemade meat sauce even better? The best part about this recipe is that it’s easy to customize to your tastes. Here are some Cousin Rosie tips to kick the recipe up a notch.

• Instead of using water to thin down the sauce, use beef broth. This will give the sauce a little extra flavor.
• Tomato paste is a great way to give the sauce more depth of flavor – it really emphasizes that tomato flavor!
• Use brown sugar instead of white sugar. Brown sugar has the same effect, but the molasses in brown sugar will give the sauce a deeper, warmer flavor (without making it sweet).
• Feel free to use another type of meat. This meat sauce would be delicious with spicy Italian sausage or ground turkey. For more traditional spaghetti sauce, try a combination of ground beef and ground Italian sausage (1.5 pounds of each if you’re following this recipe).
• If you like heat, add some red pepper flakes! Just ½ teaspoon will give the meat sauce a slight kick (but feel free to add more if you like spice!).

What’s the difference between pasta sauce, pizza sauce, and marinara sauce?

While these may all seem like different sauces, at their core, they’re all tomato-based sauces that build flavor the longer they cook. A traditional marinara sauce is usually meatless and slow-simmered with garlic and herbs for flavor. Pizza sauce is very similar to marinara but usually simpler and cooks with the pizza (instead of pre-cooked on the stovetop). Finally, spaghetti sauce is just about any sauce you put over pasta. It’s also like marinara, with extra ingredients like spices, meats or vegetables (or both), and cheese.

How to Prep Big-Batch Meat Sauce for Freezing

To prep your sauce for the freezer, you need to let it cool. Not all the way, but enough for it to be safe to handle. Get your freezer-safe containers, freezer bags, or canning jars ready to go. I store my meat sauce in quart-size freezer bags. Label the containers with what it is (meat sauce) and the date you made it before filling the containers (good luck trying to write “meat sauce” on a warm, gloopy bag of sauce, Cousins! 😉)

Meat sauce will last in the fridge for 3-4 days and in the freezer for up to three months. That’s the longest I’ve stored my meat sauce, and it tasted just as good as when I first made it!

You can easily double-batch the recipe below if you want even more meat sauce. Likewise, if you want less, simply halve the recipe!

Can you make homemade meat sauce in a slow cooker?

Yes! Cook the meat, onions, garlic, peppers, and seasoning on the stovetop. Add the cooked meat to the slow cooker along with the tomatoes and water and cook on LOW for about 4 hours or on HIGH for about 2 hours.

More Homemade Sauce Recipes to Try

This meat sauce isn’t the only homemade sauce I’ve got up my sleeve! Try these delicious sauces next time:

• Meatless Spaghetti Sauce (slow cooker recipe!)
• Best Ever Marinara Sauce
• Homemade Vodka Sauce
• Homemade Vegetable Marinara Sauce

Loved this recipe? Let me know in the comments! Don’t forget to tag and follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest, subscribe to I Heart Recipes on YouTube, and check out all my cookbooks! My brand-new Cousin Rosie Holiday Cookbook is available now!