Spaghetti Sauce
Makes 10 servings.
- 0.5 cups avocado or grapeseed oil
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 large yellow onion
- 1.5 pounds lean ground beef or Impossible Burger
- 15 ounces tomato sauce
- 12 ounces tomato paste
- 1 bottle of red wine or 4 cups of Burgandy
- 1 tablespoon oregano
- 1 tablespoon thyme
- 1 tablespoon sage
- 1 tablespoon basil
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 56 ounces (2 cans) Italian-style tomatoes in basil
Add oil to a large pot. Set stove to medium heat. Press garlic and add to pot. Fry garlic until starting to brown, about 1 minute. Chop onion and add to pot. Cook until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add ground beef and cook until the meat is brown, about 2 minutes. Stir in the remaining ingredients, except for the Italian-style tomatoes. Turn down heat to low. Put a colander into a bowl and pour the Italian-style tomatoes into the colander. Pour the sauce from the Italian-style tomatoes into the pot. Place splash guard over the pot. Cook, stirring every 10-15 minutes until very thick, about 4-5 hours. Add the Italian-style tomatoes. Cook for another 30 minutes. Serve over noodles. Add parmesean cheese to taste. Goes great with garlic bread.
For me there is no better spaghetti sauce that the stuff I grew up with. Period. I grew up on this stuff and maybe that’s got something to do with it, but when I make my friends have no problem polishing off a plateful and coming back for more.
My dad learned his first version of this recipe while working in an Italian restaurant in college. He made it a bunch of times while studying at Berkeley because, besides tasting great, it can be made in big batches and it refrigerates well (up to about 2 weeks). Over the last 30 years he’s tried a lot of different things before arriving at the recipe I present to you. I can’t tell you how much I looked forward to eating this when my dad made it when I was a kid. Enjoy!
Updated on July 14, 2022
- Moved recipe to the top, prose to the bottom.
- Dropped the ‘best’.
- Added #recipe tag.
- Added ingredients list.
- Edited to make it easier to read.