This easy Homemade Spaghetti Sauce recipe comes together in only 25 minutes. My spaghetti sauce is perfect for a quick dinner, to serve with your meatballs, or to throw in your lasagna. Everyone will love this great recipe.
This is the best spaghetti sauce recipe and one of my most popular recipes. It is versatile, easy to make, and it is perfect in so many of my other recipes (see the full list at the bottom of the post) but is great to just throw on your spaghetti. Everyone, even your picky eaters, will love this recipe. It is so much better than store-bought sauces.
This sauce is so easy to make and is a hit in our house. It’s our go to, haven’t bought store sauce since I tried this.
How to Make Spaghetti Sauce
This is a brief overview of how to make this simple recipe. For the full recipe with all of the ingredients and measurements, see the recipe card at the bottom of the post.
- Sauté garlic in oil. It is very easy to burn garlic, so be sure that the garlic only sautés for about 30 seconds before moving on to the next step. If the garlic does burn, it is best to start over with a throughly cleaned pot.
- Add the canned tomatoes. You can use two cans of crushed tomatoes or one can of crushed and one can of diced depending on what you want the consistency of the sauce to look like.
- Season the sauce with spices and herbs. We are adding in some dried herbs, salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes to season this sauce.
- Simmer the sauce. We will simmer the sauce for 15 minutes. This will allow the flavors to combine and will also help thicken the sauce.
- Adjust the flavors of the sauce. This is maybe the most important step of the recipe, read more on this below.
Balancing Flavors in a Recipe
Several years ago, I had the opportunity to train with a professional chef. I learned so much from him in the short time we worked together, but perhaps the most important thing I learned was about balancing flavors in a recipe.
This is an important step at the end of making any recipe. Sometimes you need just a little salt, which can bring out the flavors in a recipe, but sometimes you need to balance things. For example, if you make my crockpot chili and it ends up being too spicy for you, you can add a tablespoon of brown sugar and it will balance the heat. If you make my pea soup and the peas bring almost too much sweetness to the soup, you balance it with a little acid or some lemon juice
In this recipe, we are using canned tomatoes. Tomatoes that are fresh from the garden and turned into a sauce that simmers all day will be perfectly sweet. That just isn’t the case when it comes to canned tomatoes. They can have a bitter or acidic taste to them. Because of that, I suggest adding two teaspoons of sugar at the end of the recipe. You can start with less, add it, and see the taste profile of the sauce change. Try it one time, I think you will love it!
Sugar in Spaghetti Sauce
As mentioned above, sugar is being used here to balance the acidic taste of canned tomatoes. The sugar in this sauce is very minimal. We are using just enough to neutralize the taste of the acid, if the sauce is sweet after, you have added too much sugar. This is not an Elf with the maple syrup situation.
We are only using 2 teaspoons of sugar which results in .16 teaspoon per serving or .8 grams of carbs per half cup of sauce.
Variatons
- Add onions to the sauce. This is the most obvious variation, and I totally support it. I made this for the non-onion lovers in my house, but onions really are perfect in spaghetti sauce. Add a finely diced small yellow onion and an extra tablespoon of oil when you add your garlic and sauté for 5 to 7 minutes before adding the tomatoes.
- Add vegetables. This is a great way to sneak more veggies into your kids’ diets. Load this up with diced carrots, zucchini, mushrooms, and red peppers. Use an extra tablespoon of olive oil and sauté in step one for 5 to 7 minutes before you add the tomatoes. Keep in mind that you will need to simmer for longer than 15 minutes because the vegetables will add a lot more liquid to the sauce. Simmer for about five extra minutes.
- Throw in some fresh herbs. At the end of the simmering time, add some fresh herbs for a bright pop of color and flavor. I would recommend 1/4 cup finely diced fresh parsley or fresh basil.
- Skip the tomato pieces. A lot of picky eaters struggle with texture over taste. An easy solution in this recipe is to swap out the can of diced tomatoes for a second can of crushed tomatoes.
- Make this a meat sauce. It is so easy to add ground beef, ground turkey, or Italian sausage to this great sauce recipe. See my link below for my very popular Meat Sauce recipe.
Spaghetti Meat Sauce Recipe
How to Use
This is named a spaghetti sauce, but of course you can pour it over any type of pasta. As mentioned above you can top my meatballs with it or add it to my lasagna.
- Italian Meatloaf: This is a great twist on the traditional meatloaf.
- Stuffed Shells with Meat: Or you can use this sauce to make my Cheese Stuffed Shells.
- Italian Stuffed Peppers: This is one of my kids’ favorite dinners! So flavorful.
- Baked Chicken Parmesan: We love this recipe, it even wins over my picky eaters.
Storing
Leftovers of this sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. My spaghetti sauce recipe freezes very well. Be sure that you put it in a container where it has room to expand. It can be stored in the freezer for up to three months. Once you thaw it, you will want to use all of the sauce you’ve thawed within three days. Consider freezing the sauce in individual portions if you live alone. As with all recipes, use your best discretion when it comes to leftovers.
FAQ
I don’t have enough experience with canning to advise on canning this. You can read up on canning here: https://www.nifa.usda.gov/about-nifa/blogs/usdas-complete-guide-home-canning
Yes! Read in the section above about freezing this sauce.
Garden tomatoes will need to be processed before they could be used in this sauce with the skin removed.
Read two of the sections above explaining balancing flavors and why sugar is needed in a sauce using canned tomatoes.
Absolutely. I think it adds a hint of heat without making the sauce spicy, but the most important thing is to make it in a way that your family will love.
No, you do not need to drain them.
This sauce will last in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to five days.
If you buy no salt canned tomatoes and omit the salt from the recipe, you will have a reduced sodium tomato sauce.
San Marzano tomatoes are very sweet despite being canned and like you will not need sugar if you use them.
What to Serve with Easy Spaghetti Sauce
This over some pasta with some sausages is a go to dinner for our family. Here are a few ideas to round out dinner.
If you make my easy spaghetti sauce recipe or any of my other recipes, leave me a comment and let me know what you think.
Easy Homemade Spaghetti Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 6 garlic cloves minced
- 28 ounces crushed tomatoes undrained (794 grams)
- 28 ounces diced tomatoes undrained, see note (794 grams)
- 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt if you use table salt, start with half this amount
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
- 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes optional
- dash black pepper
- 2 teaspoons sugar
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and sauté just until it becomes fragrant, about 30 seconds. Be careful not to burn the garlic. If the garlic burns, start over.6 garlic cloves, 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- Add in the crushed and diced tomatoes. Stir in the salt, oregano, parsley, basil, crushed red pepper flakes, and black pepper.28 ounces crushed tomatoes, 28 ounces diced tomatoes, 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley, 1/2 teaspoon dried basil, 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, dash black pepper
- Bring the sauce to a simmer, then reduce the heat to low and cook for about 15 minutes or until the sauce is thickens, stirring intermittently.
- Taste the sauce and balance the flavor. Canned tomatoes will likely need both teaspoons of sugar, but start with one teaspoon. You will notice that it takes away the bitterness of the canned tomatoes. If you need more add the second teaspoon. Add more salt and pepper as needed.2 teaspoons sugar
- Use immediately or store in the refrigerator for 4 to 5 days. See my notes in the post about freezing.
Notes
Meg says
Hi, Yvonne! I was wondering if you had any luck with canning the recipe? If you did, do you have any tips? Thank you!
Pam says
Can you use unsalted crushed tomatoes? Thank you!
Absolutely. If this is for a low sodium diet, don’t change a thing. If it’s just because it’s what you have on hand, just keep in mind that you might need to add more salt at the end.