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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.