My homemade tomato meat sauce is sugar free, hearty, savory, delicious and nutritious. You can serve it in its simplest form, or load it up with other vegetables for a veggie-rich pasta dinner that the kids will hardly notice. This is the best meat sauce recipe for making so many different things, from spaghetti dinners, to lasagna, to casseroles, to panzerotti, to manicotti. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do!

This recipe is an amazing meal prep option to throw in the freezer ahead of time for busy weeknight dinners. 

How to make homemade tomato meat sauce

Making this easy meat sauce recipe from scratch is really quite simple, and if you’ve never done it before, I’m so glad you are here! Here’s a basic outline of how to make this great recipe, with specific amounts listed on the recipe card below:

1. Saute the onions and garlic in olive oil. This step allows the fragrant onions and garlic to develop some delicious, cooked flavor. To this step, you’ll add your meat.
2. Brown the meat. I like to use ground beef for my meat sauce, and browning it on the stove top on medium heat with the onion allows it to take on some of that aromatic, delicious taste.
3. Add the tomatoes and spices. I use diced tomatoes and tomato paste in this recipe to give my sauce a little more of a hearty texture. You can also sub the diced tomatoes for tomato sauce, or even tomato juice if you prefer. For the spices, I like to use basil and oregano (feel free to use fresh herbs for this), or you can substitute those spices for Italian seasoning. In addition to that, you’ll want to make sure you have salt, pepper, and if you like a little extra heat—red pepper flakes.
4. Simmer. Allowing the sauce to simmer on low heat for at least 30 minutes allows the flavors to develop for the best homemade sauce experience. While your sauce cooks, you can prepare your pasta.

How to drain the fat off of ground beef

When draining the fat off of ground beef, I like to just use a small ladle, tip the pot on its side a little bit (so that the fat runs to the edge), and spoon the hot fat into a heat-proof bowl to cool before I discard it. Never pour the fat from your ground beef into your sink; as it cools, the fat will solidify, and this can badly drain the pipes. Always pour the fat into a disposable jar or container (I always keep old, empty peanut butter jars for this) and throw it into the garbage can. It’s important to allow the fat to cool before throwing it in the garbage so that the heat does not melt your garbage bag and make a mess! 

If you’re using lean ground beef (as I usually do), you may not need to drain off the fat at all. A little bit of fat left in the bottom of the pot is actually a good thing, giving the sauce a richer flavor.

Using other types of meat

This recipe can easily be made with ground turkey, ground pork, or sausage meat. 

Getting a roasted tomato flavor

If you want to get a roasted tomato sauce flavor, or if you need to make more room on the stovetop for other things, I recommend making this recipe in a dutch oven (rather than a large pot), and then let it sit uncovered in a 350 degree (F) oven for the simmering time (30 minutes-2 hours). This will allow the sauce to take on a rich, roasted tomato sauce taste which I find absolutely delicious.

The best additions for homemade meat sauce

As with most things cooked, you can adjust this easily with whatever tomato products or vegetables you have on hand. Personally, I love adding many things to this recipe, but I’ll give you a list here of some of my favorite additions:

• Leftover fresh tomatoes, chopped (I use leftover tomato slices from sandwiches, or chopped tomatoes from taco salad this way to use them up)
• Sundried tomatoes, chopped
• Mushrooms 
• Zuchinni (chopped or grated)
• Carrot (grated)
• Green bell pepper
• Red bell pepper
• Roasted red peppers
• Beef broth (for a little extra richness)
• Chopped fresh parsley

Making pasta sauce less acidic

Tomatoes are very acidic, and many tomato sauce recipes call for sugar to help reduce the acid taste. In this recipe, I use a carrot (whole if you want to remove it or grated if you want to leave it in), which I cook with the sauce until it is very soft. The natural sugars in the carrot act very much the same way as sugar. You can also use honey, if you prefer, to reduce the acidity in the tomatoes.

How to serve tomato meat sauce (+ recipes to make with meat sauce)

In this post, I’ve served this sauce over spaghetti squash. You can serve it over any type of pasta, however, such as spaghetti noodles, linguini, fettucini, penne, rotini, etc. It’s all so delicious! I also use this sauce for making homemade lasagna, or you could easily use it for manicotti, stuffed shell pasta, panzerotti, or anything else you can think of to make with tomato pasta sauce.

If you’re using this recipe as a spaghetti meat sauce recipe, I recommend serving it with a side of good homemade garlic bread or stuffed garlic cheesy bread.

Can you use pasta sauce for pizza?

Of course! This homemade meat sauce recipe is made with ground beef and chunky diced tomatoes, so if you are looking to use this specific sauce on your pizza, you might find that it adds some extra texture to the pizza (which would be delicious, just different; so keep that in mind). In general, however, yes—pasta sauce and pizza sauce are very similar, and you can use pasta sauce for making pizza with good success.

Freezing meat sauce

I like to freeze my meat sauce in an airtight container with straight sides. This allows me to run the container under hot water, and pop it out, frozen, into a pot to re-heat. If you have a container with a curved lip on the end, you will not be able to remove the pasta sauce from the container until it has at least partially thawed.

When freezing meat sauce, remember that it will expand as it freezes, so you should leave at least a 1-inch space at the top of the container to accommodate that expansion.

How long can you freeze pasta sauce?

I would comfortably keep pasta sauce in the freezer (in sealed airtight containers) for up to 6 months. 

Can you freeze spaghetti with meat sauce?

Yes, actually, you can! I have been the grateful recipient of large containers of leftover pasta from various large-scale occasions in the past, and freezing it is the only way I can get through it without wasting it! 

I like to freeze my pasta in a sealed freezer bag or container, and thaw it completely before re-heating. To serve, I make sure that I have some cheese to go on top, or even a little bit of extra sauce to ladle over top and make it seem fresh again. (Since the pasta will absorb some of the sauce it was in before, it will be a little dry when you re-heat it. Adding a spoonful of fresh, hot sauce on top makes it feel new again!)

Heating up pasta sauce: how to do it

Leftover pasta sauce is best heated on the stovetop on low heat until it is warmed through. Make sure to stir if often to prevent burning!

If you’re heating up pasta sauce from frozen, run your container under hot water to loosen the ice around the edges of the container. Turn the block of frozen sauce into a heavy bottomed saucepan, and warm it (covered) on medium-low heat with a bit of water in the bottom (about 2Tbsp-1/4 cup) to prevent the sauce from burning before it has thawed.

You will need:

• Ingredients
• Medium-large saucepan
• Measuring spoons
• Cutting board
• Chef’s knife
• Can opener
• Stirring spoon (a wooden spoon works well for this)
• Cheese grater (optional)

If you like this recipe, you may also like:

• Roasted Tomato Soup
• Homemade Macaroni and Cheese
• Spinach, Tomato and Feta Quiche Tarts
• Easy Homemade Pizza Crust

And that’s it; so simple! This is the kind of thing you can usually pull together with whatever you can find in your pantry. The only thing it’s missing in these pictures is a good amount of fresh grated parmesan cheese and a sprinkling of ground black pepper, don’t you think?

What’s your favourite way to eat pasta?

Back soon,
Naomi

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