This is one those recipes that I make all of the time without ever bothering to write out “How” it’s done. So today, I’ve decided to change that!

As with most things cooked, you can adjust this easily with whatever tomato products or vegetables you have on hand. Personally, I love adding mushrooms to this sauce, or a nice big handful of chopped fresh parsley. I’ve also used tomato sauce, or even tomato juice instead of the diced tomatoes; but since I really like it nice and thick, diced tomatoes (or chopped fresh tomatoes) are my favourite way to go.

As pictured in this post, I’ve served this sauce over spaghetti squash as a healthy version; but this makes a great traditional meat sauce for pasta as well!

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Easy Tomato Meat Sauce

This is a simple recipe that can be made quickly with minimal ingredients, and can also be tweaked and adapted to your taste.

Course Main Course

Cuisine American, Canadian, Italian

Keyword meat sauce, pasta

Prep Time 1 hour

Author Naomi

Ingredients

• 1 large onion chopped
• 2 cloves fresh garlic crushed
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1 can diced tomatoes (1 can = 28oz or 796mL)
• 1 can tomato paste (1 can = 5.5oz or 156mL)
• 1 tsp dried oregano leaves (or 1 Tbsp fresh, chopped)
• 1 tsp dried basil leaves (or 1 Tbsp. fresh, chopped)
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp chili flakes (optional)
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar (optional - see recipe notes)

Instructions

1. In a medium sized saucepan, sauté the onion and garlic until soft. Crumble in the ground beef and fry until brown. Drain & discard the fat.

2. Add the remaining ingredients, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes. Serve hot over pasta, spaghetti squash or rice.

Recipe Notes

1. Brown sugar is added to this recipe to reduce the acidity of the tomatoes. If you want to go sugar free, you can either omit this step, substitute it for honey, or add some chopped carrots to the onions and garlic mixture.  

And that’s it! Simple. This is the kind of thing you can usually pull together with whatever you can find in your pantry – I love that. 

YUM. The only thing it’s missing is a good pile of fresh grated cheese and a sprinkling of ground black pepper. 

What’s your favourite way to eat pasta?

Back soon,
Naomi