The Best Homemade Spaghetti Sauce – Easy Old Fashioned Recipe!

The Best Homemade Spaghetti Sauce Recipe with Tomato Sauce

This easy homemade spaghetti sauce recipe with tomato sauce brings me home to my Italian family every time I make it! It’s super easy and full of flavor… Once you’ve had a good Italian spaghetti sauce, you won’t want to use the grocery store stuff from the jar again! This homemade spaghetti sauce uses tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes and goes perfect on your favorite pasta!

This recipe can be made with canned tomatoes and with HOMEMADE TOMATO SAUCE (recipe below for that!)

My Dad is Italian… My Grandmothers family is from Sicily, so I grew up eating fresh Italian recipes like homemade spaghetti sauce at least once a week! They’d cook a huge pot of this sauce (I have seven siblings) adding goodies like fresh mushrooms, fresh ground Italian sausage, fresh bell peppers, onions, and garlic. So this homemade spaghetti or crushed tomato sauce is like coming home to me!

I never ate store bought tomato sauce growing up… Ever! I didn’t even know what Prego tasted like till I was an adult.

The recipe I’m sharing today is not as fancy as my parents’, but it is the base! So you can add mushrooms, sausage, and whatever your heart desires to it! Homemade spaghetti sauce can be used as pizza sauce, in soups, or you can add to it for some knock your socks off spaghetti or pasta sauce!

All you need for this homemade sauce recipe is a few simple ingredients and a little bit of time. This easy recipe uses basic ingredients like extra virgin olive oil, tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, garlic cloves, and fresh herbs. You cook it over medium-high heat and use an immersion blender. potato masher, or food processor. You can always add parmesan cheese, ground beef, Italian Sausage, mushrooms, or yellow onion according to your desires!

Main Spaghetti Sauce Ingredients:

Crushed Tomatoes

This recipe calls for crushed tomato sauce, you can use fresh tomatoes, but the process will take longer as their skins need to be removed and they need to cook down.

Crushed tomatoes are the base for this homemade spaghetti sauce. You can use diced tomatoes, but the texture will be different.

Start cooking your crushed tomatoes and add 3 tablespoons of water, If your sauce seems too thick, add another tablespoon of water.

Italian Sausage!!!

Don’t skip this ingredient… Italian sausage comes either sweet or spicy. They are BOTH delicious, full of flavor, and make this sauce so satisfying!

Onions and Garlic

Fresh garlic and onions give a lot of flavor to this sauce! I use one large onion and three garlic cloves. I’m a garlic lover, but you can add more or less garlic if you like… Three is good for me! I actually enjoy the onion flavor better than the garlic, so I use an entire large onion!

(If you don’t have fresh onions and garlic, you can use dried, it will make the recipe taste and texture a little different, but it will still be good!)

Chunky or Smooth Spaghetti Sauce?

This is a slightly chunky homemade spaghetti sauce. The main ingredient creating chunks is onions…Crushed tomatoes are a bit chunky too, but not like the onions… If you want a smoother pasta sauce, you can cut onions really small in a food processor, or puree your sauce after cooking it!

Basil Leaves

Fresh basil leaves are an Italian Sauce Signature herb! The flavor of fresh basil compliments tomato perfectly! If you don’t have fresh basil, use dried! (Just make sure it’s not too old, because if it’s too old if won’t have much flavor.)

Seasonings

Salt and black pepper the sauce to taste! You can also add a little Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes for heat, a bay leaf while cooking (then remove), parmesan cheese, or oregano!

I like to add garlic and onion powder on top of the fresh onions and garlic, for an extra kick of flavor!

How Long For Cook Time?

Simmer this sauce for at least 30 minutes, for a richer flavor simmer an hour. As this homemade spaghetti sauce cooks it will get thicker, so just add water as needed!

Using Fresh Tomatoes

To use fresh tomatoes you will need to make the crushed tomato sauce first

Crushed Tomato Sauce

If you love tomatoes or Italian food then you have probably cooked with crushed tomatoes! Those crushed tomatoes were probably store bought in a metal can… Unless you’re old school and make everything from scratch. I’ve used commercially canned crushed tomatoes too… They’re easy and work great!

Home Canned Crushed Tomato Sauce Is Better!

Homemade crushed tomatoes are the freshest, and so they taste the best! That’s because you pick tomatoes frsh from your garden at the peak of ripeness and they go straight into your jar! It just doesn’t get any better than that!

How TO MAKE Homemade Spaghetti Sauce Recipe

1. First, put a medium sized saucepan on the stove at medium heat.
2. Add 2-4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.
3. Dice onions and add to oil, and saute for five minutes till soft soft.
4. Next add garlic, and saute for about 1 minute till you smell the fragrance.
5. Add your canned or homemade crushed tomatoes, salt and black pepper, oregano and seasonings.
6. Place the lid on pan with a 1 inch gap on one side Simmer partially covered for 15 minutes.
7. In a medium skillet, Cook 1 pound ground italian sausage till browned and 1 small package of sliced button mushrooms till soft, and add to sauce. Italian sausage is my favorite thing about the homemade spaghetti sauce… It is so yummy and is packed with flavor.
8. Stir in chopped fresh basil and remove from heat.

*Optional Add Ins for Homemade Spaghetti Sauce Recipe

This spaghetti sauce is good on its own…. But add in these ingredients for a special Italian spaghetti sauce that will please all pasta & spaghetti lovers!

Sweet and Hot Italian Sausage

• Fresh sliced olives… We use black olives, but you can use your favorite type!
• Fresh ground sweet or hot Italian Sausage…. I LOVE sweet Italian sausage by Johnson Farms. They flavor is just amazing. But my Dad uses BOTH types of italian sausage in her spaghetti sauce, and it is amazing!
• Fresh sliced bell peppers! These fresh sliced bell peppers give your sauce a distinct flavor that compliments the tomatoes, onions and garlic perfectly!
• A bit of sugar sweetens the sauce and makes it less acidic! I use just 1 teaspoon!

Homemade Tomato Sauce Recipe For Spaghetti and Canning

Home-canned crushed tomatoes are easy to make, recipe & instructions for 6 quarts:

Recipe for 6-quart jars:

You will need: 18 lbs whole tomatoes, 12 Tbsp bottled lemon juice for each quart jar, and 12 tsp salt

1. First, wash your tomatoes and then dip them boiling water for 60 seconds.
2. Then, Immediately remove them from boiling water and right away dip them in cold water.
3. Remove skins, they should slip right off.
4. Trim away any green areas and cut out core.
5. Cut up about 2 cups of tomatoes.
6. Places all skinless and cut tomatoes into a large stainless pot.
7. Bring tomatoes to a boil over medium heat.
8. Use the hand potato masher to crush tomatoes.
9. Stirring often to avoid scorching.
10. Gently boil tomatoes for 5 minutes.
11. Then, add two tablespoons of lemon juice to each quart jar.
12. Fill jars with hot tomatoes and leave ½ inch headspace at top of the jar. 
13. Remove air pockets by pressing tomatoes down into jars til the any spaces between tomatoes fill with tomato juice.
14. Be sure to leave a half inch headspace.
15. Wipe rims with a clean cloth.
16. Place lids and adjust until finger tight. Don’t over-tighten lids.
17. Process filled jars in boiling water-bath canner for 45 minutes. Remove jars and cool.

How To Store Leftover Spaghetti Sauce

If you have any leftover spaghetti sauce, store it for later use in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 1 week. You can also freeze your own spaghetti sauce in an airtight plastic container with a lid, freezer-safe jar, or freezer-safe ziplock bag.

You May Also Enjoy These Old Fashioned From Scratch Recipes:

Thank you for trying my homemade spaghetti sauce recipe with tomato sauce! You may also enjoy these classic recipes:

• Award Winning Banana Bread With Sour Cream
• Boston Butt Roast! (The Best Pulled Pork!)
• From Scratch Homemade Bread (or rolls)
• Texas Sheet Cake!