Ground Beef Spaghetti Sauce
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This homemade spaghetti sauce recipe with ground beef has all the classic flavors of a traditional sauce simmered on the stove for an easy and healthy homemade meal!
This delicious sauce uses fresh tomatoes, onions, mushrooms and celery. Ground beef is added and simmered in tomato sauce with dried herbs.
Serve over fresh pasta, spaghetti squash or zucchini noodles with fresh parmesan cheese. Or in our easy dinners including vegetable spaghetti and easy one pot spaghetti recipes!
Best Meat Sauce
Making a big batch of homemade spaghetti sauce can really save a lot of time on busy weeknights. It’s one of the easiest meals you can serve by dumping sauce over pasta.
- This spaghetti meat sauce recipe makes a large batch – about 5-6 meals worth!
- Use fresh or canned tomatoes for this recipe.
- With a few fresh ingredients including vegetables, some ground beef and spices, this sauce is easy to prepare.
- This great recipe freezes well! I prefer to add the sauce to mason jars and pop those straight into the freezer. Freezer bags work great too!
- Double the recipe for even more spaghetti sauce to freeze for future meals.
- Homemade sauce can be served over fresh pasta, rice, quinoa, zucchini noodles or spaghetti squash.
- Serve with garlic bread or our herb quick bread or cottage cheese muffins for a hungry family.
Recipe Ingredients
GROUND BEEF: Extra lean ground beef will produce less grease. This works better so you don’t have to scoop out the excess grease while you’re cooking the sauce.
VEGETABLES: I think the veggies really make this sauce delicious! They add a bit of texture and crunch that is needed. Be sure to chop the onions small, along with celery and mushrooms.
TOMATOES: Fresh tomatoes can be added straight to the pot whole or cut in half. No need to chop them any further. You can also use canned whole tomatoes. Small cans of tomato paste and tomato passata add extra flavor. Tomato passata is unflavored pureed tomatoes. You can also use canned tomato sauce with no seasonings added.
SPICES: For seasonings, dried oregano, dried basil, bay leaves, salt and pepper are added.
VARIATIONS: Use ground Italian sausage or ground turkey instead. Add chopped bell peppers, a pinch of red pepper flakes
How To Make Homemade Meat Sauce
This simple wholesome sauce will soon become a family favorite!
- Sautee onions, celery, mushrooms and garlic according to the full instructions in the recipe card below.
- Cook the ground beef separately until browned.
- Add cooked vegetables to ground beef along with all other ingredients.
- Cover and let simmer.
- Scoop overtop of fresh pasta and enjoy.
Recipe Tips
- Keep tomatoes whole or cut in half. Don’t chop any further. As the sauce cooks, the tomatoes break down, but the skin and cores do not. You’ll have to remove those at the end – the less you need to scoop through the sauce the better!
- If using canned whole tomatoes, choose ones without any added flavor. These already have the skins removed, but cores will still need to be scooped out at the end.
- Let the pasta sauce simmer for a full hour. This allows for a greater depth of flavor in the sauce. Let simmer on medium-low heat. Cover with a lid on an angle.
- The sauce will boil and bubble as it’s simmering. Sauce splatters on the stove are just part of the process. I kept a wet cloth nearby to wipe up splatters anytime I stirred the sauce.
- I used 24 oz wide mouth mason jars (750 ml). These jars are great for homemade sauces! They are freezer friendly and store easily.
- Because this sauce contains ground beef, it’s best to freeze the recipe and not use it for canning.
Best Way To Store
The leftover spaghetti sauce can be stored in an airtight container in the freezer for future meals. I used 24 oz wide mason jars which are freezer friendly. This size can be used for 1-2 meals.
If you have limited freezer space, add serving portions (about 1 ½ or 2 cups of sauce) to a medium freezer bag. You can use these freezer bag holders to stand the bag upright while pouring the sauce in. Freezer bags can be stored flat to help save space.
The frozen sauce will keep a long time in the freezer! I usually use it up within about six months.
Because this sauce has ground beef mixed in, I don’t recommend canning it.
More Tomato Recipes
- Tomato Pasta Soup with fresh basil is quick and easy.
- Onion Garlic Tomato Soup has a depth of flavor and can also be used as a spaghetti sauce.
- Mozzarella Chicken in Tomato Sauce is delicious and low carb.
- Tomato Cod Soup is full of healthy ingredients and ready in 20 minutes.
- Pizza Pasta Casserole is our favorite pasta on weeknights.
Spaghetti Sauce With Ground Beef
Ingredients
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 6 garlic cloves - minced
- 3 medium white onions - chopped into small pieces
- 1 cup chopped fresh mushrooms
- 2 celery stalks - chopped small
- 1 lb ground beef
- 3 ½ lbs fresh tomatoes
- 22 oz passata strained tomatoes - or tomato puree (660 ml)
- 11 oz tomato paste - about 2 small cans (5.27 oz each)
- 1 ½ Tbsp dried oregano
- ½ Tbsp dried basil
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp salt
- ¼ tsp ground black pepper
Instructions
- Prep Ingredients: Chop the onion small, chop celery, mushrooms, slice tomatoes in half, and mince the garlic.
- Add onions, mushrooms, celery and garlic to a large pot over medium heat with the olive oil. Cook until onions turn translucent and mushrooms soften, about 2-3 minutes. Remove the cooked vegetables from pot into a bowl. Set aside for now.
- Add the ground beef to the pot and cook until brown and no longer pink. Drain excess grease if needed.
- Add back the veggies along with tomatoes, tomato paste, tomato juice, dried oregano, dried basil, bay leaves, salt and pepper.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce and let it simmer low for 1 hour, stirring occassionally.Once finished cooking, you can discard the bay leaves and scoop out any tomato skins and cores.
- Pour sauce into mason jars. Let cool completely then store in the freezer.
- Pour hot spaghetti sauce overtop of fresh pasta. Serve and enjoy!
Recipe Notes:
- Freeze the leftovers in mason jars or freezer bags. Add cooled sauce to a container and freeze for up to 6 months.
- Store in serving portions to save time. 1 ½ to 2 cups per portion.
- Keep tomatoes whole or cut in half. Don’t chop any further. As the sauce cooks, the tomatoes break down, but the skin and cores do not. You’ll have to remove those at the end – the less you need to scoop through the sauce the better!
- If using canned whole tomatoes, choose ones without any added flavor. These already have the skins removed, but cores will still need to be scooped out at the end.
- Let the sauce simmer for a full hour. This allows for a greater depth of flavor in the sauce. Let simmer on medium-low heat. Cover with a lid on an angle.
- The sauce will boil and bubble as it’s simmering. Sauce splatters on the stove are just part of the process. I kept a wet cloth nearby to wipe up splatters anytime I stirred the sauce.
- I used 24 oz wide mouth mason jars (750 ml). These jars are great for homemade sauces! They are freezer friendly and store easily.
- Because this sauce contains ground beef, it’s best to freeze the recipe and not use it for canning.
- Keep tomatoes whole or cut in half. Don’t chop any further. As the sauce cooks, the tomatoes break down, but the skin and cores do not. You’ll have to remove those at the end – the less you need to scoop through the sauce the better!
- If using canned whole tomatoes, choose ones without any added flavor. These already have the skins removed, but cores will still need to be scooped out at the end.
- Let the sauce simmer for a full hour. This allows for a greater depth of flavor in the sauce. Let simmer on medium-low heat. Cover with a lid on an angle.
- The sauce will boil and bubble as it’s simmering. Sauce splatters on the stove are just part of the process. I kept a wet cloth nearby to wipe up splatters anytime I stirred the sauce.
- I used 24 oz wide mouth mason jars (750 ml). These jars are great for homemade sauces! They are freezer friendly and store easily.
- Because this sauce contains ground beef, it’s best to freeze the recipe and not use it for canning.
