• Home
  • Recipes
    • Appetizers
    • Breakfast
    • Dinner
      • Sheet Pan Recipes
      • Instant Pot Recipes
      • casserole
    • Slow Cooker
    • Soul Food
    • Southern Recipes
    • Sides
    • Dessert
      • Cookies
      • Cupcakes
    • Holiday Recipes
    • Seasoning & Spices
    • Low Carb
  • Buy My Cookbooks!
  • RosaMae Seasonings
  • About Rosie
  • Media & PR
↑

I Heart Recipes

Recipes You'll Love, Made Easy!

  • Home
  • Recipes
    • Appetizers
    • Breakfast
    • Dinner
      • Sheet Pan Recipes
      • Instant Pot Recipes
      • casserole
    • Slow Cooker
    • Soul Food
    • Southern Recipes
    • Sides
    • Dessert
      • Cookies
      • Cupcakes
    • Holiday Recipes
    • Seasoning & Spices
    • Low Carb
  • Buy My Cookbooks!
  • RosaMae Seasonings
  • About Rosie
  • Media & PR

Get Amazing Recipes straight to your inbox!

How to make the best Meat Sauce for your pasta

8/23/15

Amazing homemade meat sauce recipe

Hey friends! I have been getting a ton of recipes for different pasta dishes lately. Although many of the recipe request are different, 80% of them have one thing in common- Meat Sauce! In this post I’m going to share my recipe for the most amazing meat sauce ever! You will be able to incorporate this sauce in many pasta dishes. Also, I’m going to show you how to make the pasta sauce ahead of time, and freeze it for later use – which is handy for those busy weeknights. Let’s get started!

Hearty and flavorful meat sauce
Many of you are probably sitting there wondering ” why can’t I just buy sauce from the store”. Well, You can! However, if you take a little time out to make your own sauce, you can save money, calories, and reduce your sodium intake. Sure, there are plenty of delicious spaghetti/pasta sauces on the market these days. However, a lot of them are full of salt, corn syrup, and other things I can not pronounce.

Anyway- making your own sauce has a lot of benefits

  • Again, you can control the sodium: I actually use salt free seasoning in my meat sauce. You can use seasoning salt, or regular salt of you choose.
  • It’s cheaper to make your own sauce: For the price of 2 or 3 jars of premade sauce, you can make 5-6 jars of your own.
  • You know exactly what’s in your sauce!

Make large batches of meat sauce and freeze for later

My meat sauce consist of ground beef, garlic, tomatoes, onions, and lots of other delicious ingredients. You can substitute the ground beef with ground turkey, or ground chicken.

When I make my meat sauce, I make A LOT- I actually make enough to fill five quart freezer bags. Why? Because I like to make my meat sauce a head of time, and freeze it! Yes, you heard me! I freeze my meat sauce. A lot of people actually don’t think of doing this, and I’m not really sure why. Think of all the time you can save when you want to make a quick spaghetti meal. All you’d have to do is heat the sauce, and pour over pasta. How easy is that?!

Other than spaghetti you can use this pasta sauce for your

  • Baked Ziti
  • Lasagna
  • Cheeseburger Mac
  • Stuffed Shells
  • & more

Freezing Info

I store my meat sauce in quart size bags. I label my bags with what it is ” Meat Sauce”, and I write the date as well. The longest that I have stored my meat sauce was 3 months, and it tasted just as good as it had taste when I first made it!

The recipe below is enough to fill (5) quart bags. If you want a smaller portion, feel free to divide it however you choose.

Spaghetti
Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Homemade Meat Sauce Recipe

This homemade meat sauce is perfect for any of your favorite pasta dishes. Make ahead and freeze or make a fresh batch for a delicious dinner!
Course Main Dish
Cuisine Italian
Keyword Homemade Meat Sauce
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Servings 24 servings
Author I Heart Recipes

Ingredients

  • 3 lbs ground beef
  • 2 medium onions minced
  • 7-8 cloves of garlic minced
  • 2 30 oz cans of tomato sauce
  • 1 1/2 cup water
  • 3 large bell peppers diced
  • 3 tbsp Italian seasoning
  • 3 tbsp salt free seasoning OR 1 1/2 tbsp salt
  • 2 tsp ground black pepper I didn't use any in the video, because I used salt free seasoning that already has black pepper in it. If using salt, add pepper.
  • 14 oz can of diced tomatoes
  • 1/4 cup sugar (brings down the acidity levels of the tomato sauce and etc.)
  • 1 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese

Instructions

  • Brown the ground beef in a pot over medium heat. Drain the fat from the pot.
  • Add in the onions, garlic, peppers, and tomatoes. Stir.
  • Sprinkle in the Italian seasoning, and the salt-free seasoning OR salt & pepper.
  • Toss in the diced tomatoes, then add in the tomato sauce and water.
  • Sprinkle in the sugar, and stir all of the ingredients.
  • Add in the parmesan cheese, stir the ingredients, then reduce the heat to low.
  • Let the sauce simmer for 45 minutes.
  • Let the sauce cool down, then place the sauce into labeled bags.
  • Store the sauce in the freezer until you are ready to use it!

Video

Get All The Delicious Recipes straight to your inbox!

Filed Under: All Posts, casserole Tagged With: dinner, freezer meals, pasta, sauces

Comments

  1. Key2cakes says

    August 24, 2015 at 7:21 am

    I love freezing my meat sauce too, good have easy access to good meals during the week. Thanks for another amazing recipe!!

    Reply
    • Rosie says

      August 24, 2015 at 9:01 pm

      Yeah, it’s super convenient!

      Reply
  2. LES says

    October 14, 2015 at 4:08 pm

    Your spaghetti with meat sauce looked so good that I will have to prepare it, even though I am allergic to tomatoes.

    Reply
    • Rosie says

      October 16, 2015 at 10:26 am

      LOL! Don’t make it if you’re allergic! LOL

      Reply
    • tammy says

      May 17, 2016 at 9:00 am

      it is good I cooked it for my kids when she post it and yes the kids still ask for it till this day

      Reply
  3. Sharonda says

    February 23, 2016 at 8:56 pm

    Hey Rosie. In your video you used peppers. Why isn’t it listed in the recipe?

    Reply
    • Rosie says

      February 24, 2016 at 6:46 pm

      Oh my. Not sure how I forgot to add that. Thanks for bringing it to my attention! XOXO

      Reply
  4. tammy says

    May 17, 2016 at 9:01 am

    how long can I keep this in the freezer

    Reply
    • Rosie says

      May 17, 2016 at 10:01 am

      Hi Tammy! I keep have had mine in the freezer for up to 3 months 🙂

      Reply
  5. Demear Virgil says

    October 4, 2016 at 11:07 am

    What is salt free seasoning? Is it your own blend spices?

    Reply
    • Rosie says

      October 4, 2016 at 5:34 pm

      Hi there. There are many different brands of salt free seasonings. I like to use the original Mrs. Dash, and Trader Joes 21 seasoning salute.

      Reply
      • Demeara Virgil says

        October 5, 2016 at 5:57 am

        Ok thanks

        Reply
  6. kierra says

    March 22, 2018 at 9:27 am

    If I was making the for a small spaghetti today should I just cut everything in half ??

    Reply
    • Rosie says

      March 24, 2018 at 1:23 pm

      Yes 🙂

      Reply
  7. LaToya Carpenter says

    August 22, 2019 at 2:52 pm

    5 stars
    Thank you Rosie! Your recipes are amazeballs! So far I’ve made your smothered chicken, oxtails, mac-n-cheese, southern cornbread and collard greens and man they’ve all turned out great! Just made this meat sauce today and it’s sooo good. Thank you for such quality recipes, I’ll be back Bless you.

    Reply
    • Rosie says

      August 23, 2019 at 6:46 am

      Thank you LaToya!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Hi, I’m Rosie!

I'm happy that you have found my blog. I hope that you brought your appetite, because I have a lot of recipes for you to try!

  • Home
  • About Rosie
  • Let’s Work Together!
  • Recipe Index
  • RosaMae Seasonings
  • Privacy/Copyright Disclaimer

Blog posts may include affiliate links!

pound cake
Cheddar Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Corn Pudding Casserole
Copyright ©2023, I Heart Recipes . All Rights Reserved.
Site by Pixel Me Designs