This one-pot Spaghetti Meat Sauce Recipe is the perfect cross between a traditional Ragù (meat sauce) and spaghetti tomato sauce.
It’s made with flavorful ingredients such as browned ground beef, wholesome veggies, red wine, tart tomatoes, and spices, and then cooked slowly for a thick pasta meat sauce that can be enjoyed over al dente spaghetti with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese.
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❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
- This Italian Meat Sauce recipe calls for simple pantry staple ingredients that are extremely budget-friendly.
- It’s easy to feed a large crowd with this recipe. The meaty mixture goes a long way which means that you may even have leftovers to add to other dishes throughout the week!
- Making your pasta sauce in one pot adds convenience and reduces extra cleanup!
Grab that stored frozen ground beef and whip up this mouth-watering homemade Italian meat sauce as an easy midweek family meal. It’s delicious served over al dente spaghetti with a sprinkling of parmesan cheese!
🛒 Ingredients
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Note: The full list of this pasta meat recipe ingredients with their amounts and options are listed in the recipe card below.
- Onion
- Celery
- Carrot
- Olive oil
- Garlic
- Tomato paste
- Ground beef
- Thyme
- Black pepper
- Oregano
- Red Wine
- Crushed tomatoes -- we prefer the San Marzano variety. They are less acidic than some other brands.
- Bay leaf
- Kosher salt
- Baking soda (optional)-- add a pinch or two if your tomato sauce seems overly acidic
- Optional garnishes: Parmesan cheese, freshly chopped oregano
🗒 Instructions
Note: This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Dice the onion, celery, and carrot.
- Saute the onion, celery, and carrot with the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat for about 6 minutes.
- Add the garlic and tomato paste to the pot.
- Mix the ingredients well in the pot and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the ground beef to the pot and cook it for 8 minutes or until the meat is fully browned.
- Add the thyme, pepper, oregano, and 1 cup of red wine to the pot. Mix and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes, bay leaf, salt to the pot.
- Cover the pot and let the mixture simmer on low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 60 minutes.
🔪 Equipment
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You’ll need the following items to make this recipe successfully.
- Dutch oven or deep pot
- Sharp knife
- Cutting board
- Measuring spoons
- Liquid measuring cup
- Wooden mixing spoon
🤔 FAQs
These are the questions we are most frequently asked about making this Italian Spaghetti Meat Sauce Recipe.
Using quality ingredients is a great place to start when it comes to boosting the flavor of this one-pot bolognese. Cook the spaghetti al dente so that it’s the perfect texture by the time it’s served with the meaty mixture. I’ve also added richness to this recipe by including ingredients such as red wine.
The classic Bolognese sauce is a thick meat sauce that must contain onions, celery, carrots, pancetta, ground beef, tomatoes, milk, and white wine.
Spaghetti meat sauce is typically a thinner tomato sauce made with a variety of personal favorite ingredients served with spaghetti, hence the name!
Meat sauce will always include some form of meat, typically ground beef, and it is usually more complex in flavor due to the slow cooking process. Spaghetti sauce is typically a tomato sauce, not necessarily including meat always, and served with a type of pasta.
Ragù alla Bolognese. The meat sauce can use other types of meat depending on the region of Italy but usually, it’s ground beef.
Yes! It’s a great way to intensify the rich tomato flavor in spaghetti sauce.
Some suggest that a small amount of baking soda can raise the pH of the tart sauce, resulting in a better balance between the acidity and sweetness of a typical tomato sauce. With this method, you don't need sugar to help with the acidity of the sauce.
Spices that work really well in a tomato sauce include red pepper flakes, dehydrated or fresh garlic, dried oregano, parsley, basil, or an Italian seasoning blend.
👩🏻🍳 Tips
- For a thicker consistency in the meaty mixture, allow it to simmer for a little longer. Otherwise, add 1 teaspoon of cornstarch and water to the sauce for thickening.
- Use any leftover homemade ragù sauce to make easy Sloppy Joes. You can also enjoy leftover meat sauce over freshly cooked pasta, slathered over baked potatoes, mashed potato, or as a delicious filling in lasagna or on grilled cheese sandwiches and chili dogs.
- If you find that your spaghetti sauce with meat is too thick for your liking, thin it out by reducing or omitting the tomato paste or adding in some pasta water from any pasta you’ve cooked on the side.
📚 Variations
- You can use lean ground beef (85-90% lean) but the reduced-fat will mean less flavor in the sauce.
- For a spicy spghetti meat sauce, add hot sauce, sriracha, or cayenne pepper.
- While I’ve used onion, celery, and carrot in this meat sauce, you could also include green peppers, mushrooms, and even black olives.
- Instead of ground beef, consider making your meat sauce with ground pork or ground steak.
- Make this spaghetti meat sauce vegetarian by using vegan mince meat such as soy in place of beef.
- Add some milk to this pasta meat sauce for a more traditional Ragù!
🥫 Storage
Store the leftover spaghetti sauce with meat in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or freeze it for up to 3 months.
📗 Related Recipes
Want to know how to incorporate this irresistible meat sauce recipe into other dishes? It’s the perfect sauce to use for Old Fashioned Sloppy Joe or when making these Lasagna Rolls!
You can easily adapt this quicker One-Pot Bolognese by including ingredients such as milk like this Classic Bolognese Sauce Antica recipe.
🍽 Serve with
Serve this Italian meat sauce over al dente spaghetti or your favorite pasta. It can also be used in other recipes such as traditional lasagna, lasagna rolls, or used in Sloppy Joes!
📞 Chiacchierata (chat)
In our home, I’d always know that Mamma was about to make her ragù (meat sauce) when I saw the cutting board of freshly diced celery, carrots, and onions alongside minced beef. And while I knew that I’d have to be patient and allow the slow cooking process to take its course, it was always worth the wait!
Today, I get to share my version of A quick Italian meat sauce with you, and I’m just as excited for you to give it a try!
If you're family wants to try a dish that combines two favorites, ragù sauce and Alfredo sauce, make our fabulous Million Dollar Spaghetti Alfredo casserole. So good, those serving plates will come back spotless.
Tutti a tavolo, è pronto!
Tutti a tavola, è pronto!
What's new? Check out my All Our Way Store on Amazon. We'll be adding more items we love and use or wish we had to make cooking fun and easy.
📝 Recipe Card
This quicker One-Pot spaghetti sauce is a rich meat sauce, thickened by the slow cooking, allowing all the hearty flavors of the browned ground beef, veggies, red wine, tomato paste, juicy crushed tomatoes, and spices to meld together and intensify.
Serve this Italian meat sauce over spaghetti with parmesan cheese for a satisfying meal.
If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.
📖 Recipe
Hearty Italian Spaghetti Meat Sauce
Equipment Needed
Ingredients
- 1 Onion chopped
- 2 Celery Stalks chopped
- 1 Carrot do not peel the carrot
- 1 Tablespoons Olive oil
- 3 Garlic cloves minced
- 6 ounce Can tomato paste
- 2 pounds Ground beef 85%lean
- ½ teaspoon Thyme
- ½ teaspoon Black pepper
- ½ teaspoon Oregano
- ¾ cup Red wine not sweet
- 2 28-ounce cans of crushed tomatoes we prefer the San Marzano variety
- 1 Bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- pinch of baking soda (if the sauce seems too acidic)
- Optional garnishes: Parmesan cheese, freshly chopped oregano.
Instructions
Soffritto
- Sauté the onion, celery, and carrot with olive oil for 6 minutes in a large Dutch oven or pot over medium heat.
Sauce
- Add the garlic and tomato paste to the pot. Mix and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add beef to the pot. Mix and cook for 8 minutes or until fully browned.
- Add the thyme, black pepper, oregano, and 1 cup of red wine to the pot. Mix and simmer for 10 minutes.
- Add the tomatoes, bay lear, and salt to the pot. Cover and simmer on low heat, stirring occasionally, for approximately 60 minutes.
- Taste. If the sauce seems too tart or acidic, add a pinch of baking soda. Mix and taste again. Add a bit more until you reach the taste you like.
Notes
- For a thicker consistency in the meaty mixture, allow it to simmer for a little longer. Otherwise, add 1 teaspoon of cornstarch and water to the sauce for thickening.
- Use any leftover homemade ragù sauce to make easy Sloppy Joes. You can also enjoy leftover meat sauce over freshly cooked pasta, slathered over baked potatoes, mashed potato, or as a delicious filling in lasagna or on grilled cheese sandwiches and chili dogs.
- If you find that your spaghetti sauce with meat is too thick for your liking, thin it out by reducing or omitting the tomato paste or adding in some pasta water from any pasta you’ve cooked on the side.
- Taste the finished sauce and add salt and black pepper if needed. If the sauce is too acidic add a pinch of baking soda to it to neutralize the acid.
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