Spaghetti Sauce Recipe
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This is a fabulous recipe for Spaghetti Sauce. It’s easy and perfect every single time.
Being a creature of habit is sometimes a good thing. Sometimes it’s not. When you avoid using ground sausage in Spaghetti Sauce because you grew up always using ground beef, would be one of those times it’s not such a good thing. Last week I found myself scrambling to pull together supper on the fly and was only missing ground beef for our standard Spaghetti Sauce recipe. I had some ground sausage on hand for Ro*Tel dip from Friday night’s high school post-game gathering, so I used that instead.
Thank goodness for my lack of preparedness. Over the years I had seen recipes and had many friends who suggested that I try ground sausage in spaghetti sauce, but it was that durn creature of habit that wouldn’t let me budge … until I had to. Honest to goodness, possibly the best Spaghetti Sauce Recipe I’ve ever made—maybe even the best I’ve ever had. For real.
When preparing this sauce, I like to go ahead and make a double batch of this sauce to freeze in order to have plenty to use for other recipes like Baked Ziti or Lasagna. While I used a ground pork sausage for this recipe, you can easily substitute other ground sausage types of your preference, as needed.
This flavorful sauce will be perfect for your next Italian night. Try this recipe soon. I think you will be glad that you did! Enjoy!
Tip: My favorite ground sausage is the Neeses brand, especially the spiced up version. It is mighty nice in this recipe if you like extra seasonings! Try it.
More favorite Italian recipes:
Spaghetti Sauce Recipe
Spaghetti Sauce
A super simple homemade spaghetti sauce with ground sausage.
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground sausage (My favorite is Neeses.)
- 1 medium-largish onion, chopped
- 3-4 ounces red wine
- 28 ounces canned diced tomatoes
- 35 ounces canned peeled tomatoes
- 28 ounces canned crushed tomatoes
- 15 ounces canned tomato sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon basil
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 3-4 bay leaves
Instructions
- Brown sausage in large dutch oven or heavy bottomed stock pot over medium heat.
- Add chopped onion and sauté for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Stir in red wine and cook for 1 minute.
- Add remaining ingredients, stir to combine and bring to a simmer.
- Simmer over medium for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Taste and adjust seasonings.
- Reduce heat to low-medium low, cover and continue to cook for at least 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally (the longer the better).
- Serve over cooked pasta, or use as meat sauce in baked ziti, lasagna, or other baked pasta dish.
Notes
If preparing ahead, cover and refrigerate, and gradually re-warm before serving.
Originally published September 20, 2013.
Love spicy Italian sausage! I discovered it years ago, and use it in all my Italian dishes!
My family love spicy italian sausage!! I always use it in place of ground meat. So good!! I love this sauce!
Ground sausage in spaghetti sauce is so tasty! I love serving it to dinner parties involving kids. Yum!
ALL. OVER. THIS.
I just need a straw!
You had me at red wine.
Putting this on the menu, sounds perfect.
We always used ground beef growing up too, but I like to alternate between it and sausage. This looks delicious!
This was delicious! I used ground turkey sausage and it was great! Feel free to check out my blog for more recipes!
A lot of heavenly fresh tomatoes which I really love! I will try this recipe because of the sausage which I don’t usually use for spaghetti. This is pure goodness. Thanks for sharing!
Will the peeled, I’m assuming whole, tomatoes taste funky in this dish? I prefer a smoothish sauce and the whole tomatoes are giving me reservations to making this.
Cannot wait to try it!
This sounds good, but I’ve never seen a recipe with such large amounts of tomatoes. What do you do with the left overs? I don’t really like freezing sauce, is this designed for canning? Thank you very much.
I love spicy sausages and been doing this for years but then I now have a husband and son who can’t eat too spicy so I make it half sausages and half ground beef. Just as good.
What can I use instead of red wine?
I’d recommend red wine vinegar, grape juice, or pomegranate juice.
Thank you so much for your response! ????