I make really good spaghetti sauce. It freezes well. It only takes about 5 hours, but I buy the sausage and use quality canned tomatoes. Made from 100% scratch, including grinding your own sausage (which I did once and found not worth the trouble) probabaly would take several days, so perhaps it's similar. It's very elastic and will stand alterations that aren't too extreme. I've made vegan versions (one needs to add the seasonings from Italian sausage and add EVOO after the boiling (which would destroy it) to sub for the fat) and low FODMAP, subbing turnips for onions and similar compromises which was really hard to get right, and was fine, but is a major act of love to get through.

I use garlic, part hot Italian sausage, Anaheim (mild) peppers and a little hot pepper, but it would be fine with only sweet Italian sausage and no garlic or chili peppers. IMHO, there needs to be at least one green bell pepper to taste "right", but, again, you can adjust the flavor to suit your own tastes, though some mild peppers will make it better than no peppers at all. It might take a few tries to find your own "right". Make sure to taste all the ingredients both raw and cooked (not the meat--only taste that cooked) to know what you like and don't. People ask me for the recipe, but most don't want to actually make it. You sound like you might make it. That said, there are a zillion ways to make really good spaghetti sauce, from the cook the Sunday roast in the sauce pot to the three ingredient San Marzano tomatoes sauce. You may need to keep trying and adjusting until you get what suits you.

.

.

Base recipe from Italian family friend. I usually make a triple batch, so the basic recipe times 3:

Basic single recipe:

Cooking grade olive oil
Approx. 1.5 lbs. total meat from the butcher (raw ground beef and raw Italian sausage, or chicken/turkey Italian sausage, half and half--I use half sweet and half hot sausage and an equal amount to the half of freshly ground beef (i.e., half pound of each))

Basic ingredients, be generous:
1 onion, yellow or white, between baseball and softball size, firm and fresh
2 cloves garlic (opt.)
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp sweet basil
1 tsp parsley flakes
1 bay leaf
1 large can (28 oz.) top quality tomato puree
(If you can't find puree, run diced through the food processor or blender)
2 small cans (6 oz.) top quality tomato paste
3 paste cans water and/or 1/2 puree can water (or water and wine)
(Up to 1 TBSP sugar if very acidic (or substitute carrots), but the tomatos nowadays aren't that acidic)
salt and pepper
Whatever vegetables need using up and seem like they'd be good

Addition:

JC's on purpose (bought for this, not "fridge velcro") veg per single recipe above (with triple recipe in parenthses):
6 large mushrooms, sliced (2 boxes presliced or about 15 for triple batch)
1 large carrot, grated or minced (3 large or full bunch of small ones for triple)
1-2 fresh ripe green or yellow zucchini, quartered long way and sliced (5-6 for triple)
1-2 firm green bell peppers, chopped (3-4 for triple, opt. sub red or orange for some but at least one green)
1 lb. ripe and fragrant roma tomatoes, cut into twelfths (3 lb. for triple)
1/2-1 anaheim chili or 2 tsp red pepper flakes (2-3 chilies or 2 tbsp for triple)

Use oil as needed in a large pot. Brown meats and set aside.
Brown onions in same pot until good and golden/tan around the edges.
Add carrots and sauté for a couple of minutes.
Stir back in beef and/or pork sausage, but keep poultry to the side.
Add all the rest of the ingredients except S&P and stir. Bring to a boil, stirring. Reduce heat to a simmer that shows just a bit of movement/bubble on top, but not really boiling. Number 3-5 depending on pot.

Simmer for a few hours until the color goes dark. Keep it low so it doesn't break. Add in the poultry.

Add S&P, and adjust other flavoring (herbs, sugar, etc.)

Simmer for another hour, bring back to a boil stirring, and it's done.

This is another version I like. Easy to cut back on the garlic. I like to add dried basil and oregano (about a tsp. each) when cooking the onion, along with a pinch of red pepper flakes (also easy to omit). Otherwise, add the fresh basil mentioned at the end. I save Parmesan rinds to use in things like this and soups...very tasty.

2 T. olive oil

1 medium yellow onion, diced

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 lb ground beef

1 lb sweet or spicy Italian sausage (or 1/2 lb of each)

2 T. tomato paste

3/4 cup red wine

3 cans (28 oz each) San Marzano tomatoes with juice (see *Note below)

1 medium to large Parmesan Reggiano rind

Salt and pepper to taste

Add the whole tomatoes to a large bowl. Rinse cans with a little water to get all the juice and add to bowl. Use your hands to crush the tomatoes (see *Note below).

Saute onions/garlic. In a large pot or Dutch oven, saute the diced onion in olive oil for about 3 minutes with a healthy pinch of salt. The onions should just be soft, not browned. Then add the minced garlic and saute with the onions for 30-60 seconds.

Cook beef/sausage: Add the ground beef and sausage with another generous pinch of salt and cook until completely browned and no longer pink. Then add the tomato paste and cook for 2-3 minutes. Then add the red wine and cook with the meat for another 3 minutes.

Add tomatoes and simmer: Add the tomatoes with the juices with the meat along with the Parmesan rind. Season with another healthy pinch of salt and black pepper then partially cover and simmer on the lowest setting for 4 hours, stirring occasionally (stir every 20-30 minutes).

Taste: When the sauce is finished, taste it, add any additional salt and pepper if needed, then discard Parmesan rind and serve.

Herbs: If you'd like to add fresh herbs, add 2-3 T. of freshly chopped basil at the end before serving.

*Note: I like the whole tomatoes, but you can buy canned crushed tomatoes. I usually buy the Cento brand at Trader Joe’s.

My recipe is garlicy and spicy, so I won't bother posting, but a note about freezing. Make a lot of sauce! I put a serving for two in a qt ziplok freezer bag, lay it flat and squeeze the air out. About 6 qt bags flat fit into a gallon freezer bag. I can easily get 18 dinners out of one large pot. The key is flattening out the bags by burping out the air as you fill them.

Here's my all-purpose recipe. It's simple yet quite flavorful. The recipe multiplies nicely, so a good way to use up a big batch of fresh tomatoes and freeze the sauce (sans meat).

We prefer meatballs over meat sauce for spaghetti, but for lasagna sauce I do make it into a meat sauce.

Notes:

1. I brown ground beef as the first step if I'm making meat sauce.

2. I substitute fresh tomatoes for the canned when they're in season.

3. I double the recipe for a pan of lasagna.

Spaghetti Sauce:

* Olive oil

* 1 medium onion, chopped

* 1 clove garlic, minced

* 2 Tbls fresh parsley, chopped

* 1 Tbls fresh basil, chopped

* 1 tsp dried oregano

* 1 tsp fennel seeds, finely ground

* 1 teaspoon sugar

* 1 can (16 oz) whole tomatoes, undrained

* 1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce

Steps:

1. Carmelize onion in a bit of olive oil.

2. Add garlic; fry for about 30 seconds.

3. Add all remaining ingredients. Break up whole tomatoes.

4. Heat to boiling, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered about 45 minutes or until slightly thickened.

As with so many things I don't use a recipe. But I couldn't make it without garlic. I use any minced meat available although a mix of lamb and beef is good, onions and canned tomatoes. I do not use sausage. I generally add grated or finely chopped carrot to up the veg content. Also a slosh of wine if I have it and a slosh of milk and a bit of sugar. Any Mediterranean herbs such as bay, thyme, rosemary, oregano and plenty of them. Cook it long and low and I try to make it well in advance, a day for preference.

"...and I try to make it well in advance, a day for preference."

Yes! It always tastes better a day or two later.

Thanks to everyone! I can't wait to try them! It's so nice that we have friends on Gardenweb that will help us. Ginny

^Yes, always better when made in advance.

Ginny (my mom’s name🥰), often you need to just try different versions making tweaks that appeal to you. Tastes can be so different. What one person raves about another will think ”meh.” People used to talk about a family friend’s “amazing” spaghetti sauce. To me it was equivalent to a sauce from Chefboyardee.🥴

I’ll admit I keep Rao’s Marinara on hand to doctor in a pinch when I have less time to simmer. I still add onion, garlic and seasonings, meat/sausage or meatballs (I always have homemade meatballs in the freezer).

I usually use William's Spaghetti mix and follow the instructions to add tomato paste, water, and olive oil. I also add sweet Italian sausage and mushrooms.

This is how mom made spaghetti sauce way back in the day and I do the same. I've made a few different recipes from scratch but always go back to the William's mix.

Well, there's nothing like mom's!

I think I read all the recipes here but don’t see the main thing my father always used and which i continue: pork bones! Always. They make all the difference and are always delicious with the meatballs and sausages.

You can use pork chops or neck bones, or any other cheap pork bones. Heat olive oil in the sauce pan, sprinkle the pork with salt, oregano, and garlic, sear, remove from the pan, sear your meatballs and sausages in the same sauce pot. begin making your sauce by adding red wine to scrape the fond in the sauce pot. Return the meats to the sauce and simmer for hours, stirring frequently.

It‘s the pork and meat fond that make the sauce delicious. All the difference. And the pork is wonderful!

@floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK, when they say ”sausage” they mean Italian sausage rather than bog standard breakfast sausages. I like to use Italian sausage in my spaghetti sauce, usualy the chilli/fennel kind, but fennel also good.

Yes, I realize that, Colleen. But I don't put any kind of sausage in Bolognese sauce. I don't recall seeing it in any recipe either. Bacon or guanciale, maybe. Sausage no. 'Italian sausage' doesn't mean anything here. There are many kinds of sausage with various meats, herbs or spices available here but none are called 'Italian'. In fact, to me that phrase conjures up salami or similar. Or perhaps the 'spaghetti sauce' under discussion isn't Bolognese at all but is something I'm not familiar with and I've got the wrong end of the stick.

Though it is delicious, you don’t need Italian sausage for any italian sauce. Also, Italian sausage is nothing like salami or any hard sausage.

PS My grandparents never used ground beef in any sauce. Neither do I.

What makes my sauce so good is plenty of fresh marjoram. I can make the sauce all the way except for that ingredient, and it won't taste right. Adding it makes everything come together perfectly.

I don't use meat in my sauce because I make it in bulk for different types of pasta meals, some of which may already contain meat. I use 1.06 specific gravity tomato puree as my sauce base.

In my neck of the woods Italian sausage = fennel sausage.

Gyr, marjoram for me is the difference between pizza tasting like pizza and pizza tasting like a cheese sandwich. :)

The "spaghetti sauce" I made is technically a ragú (ragout), a stew, and doesn't actually need the pasta to be good. :)

The raw "sweet Italian sausage" ingredients are generally chicken, turkey or pork, salt, pepper, garlic, fennel, paprika, and perhaps some other spices and/ or herbs. Sometimes the butcher has it as "bulk", i.e., not in casings, which is convenient for spaghetti sauce. :) Hot (duh) has chili's or chili flakes. It's not hard to make. Just a big rigmarole and not better homemade than from the butcher.

IMO, "spaghetti sauce" could be any sauce you use to dress spaghetti/pasta with. Kind of suffers from a lack of definition :-))

If tomato based, do you want a meatless sauce, aka marinara (to which you can add or serve with an already cooked protein - meatballs, sausage, ground meat, etc.)? Or do you want a sauce that incorporates some sort of meat in it throughout the cooking process, ala bolognese?

Italian sausage is a 100% ground pork product that is sold raw/uncured. It differs from ground pork by virtue of its seasoning and is sold both in casings and loose by weight. It is frequently used in combination wit ground beef in various dishes - not just Italian - as well as a solo protein ingredient.

Ginny, here's the thread where we experimented with Marcella Hazan's three ingredient sauce. You might find it interesting.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/6476179/how-much-butter

Gardengal, you're right, but when most Americans say "spaghetti sauce" they mean some kind of tomato sauce. The rest is entirely interpretation. :) I want to try replicating the deli's spicy peanut sauced spaghetti--very different. For an in-between stepping stone, I thought I'd start with a Thai peanut salad dressing, and work backwards from there. :) But I think I'd still call it "peanut sauce"--the family would throw things at me if I promised spaghetti and served them spicy peanut. :)

Maybe we have simply gotten careless with the terminology. Spaghettiis just a shape of pasta. By a logical step up, spaghetti sauce is any sauce used with that shape of pasta..

Maybe we should just define things a bit better.

What I make would be considered a ragu and not a bolognese, yes I use sweet Italian sausage and ground beef, but probably only about 2 or 3 pounds for my 35 to 40 servings. So it is primarily a tomato sauce. I use canned puree plus canned chopped (not stewed) tomatoes. Saute onions and celery and green peppers. Lots of garlic, red chili peppers, lots of oregano, and other herbs.

What I make is actually ragù alla Bolognese but it's generally just referred to as Bolognese here.

As you have seen, there are as many recipes as there are people. LOL

Just remember that if you want authentic Italian, no garlic. They don't cook onions and garlic together - they say they fight.

https://anitalianinmykitchen.com/bolognese-sauce/ nice, simple recipe. Also, they don't eat spaghetti with Bolognese sauce, it's linguine. Us Brits love spaghetti with it and they think we're strange - then again, I love pineapple on Pizza LOL. I'm sure your sauce will be wonderful.

My Italian son in law uses garlic and onions together but removes the garlic before serving. As you say, as many recipes as people.

My recipe from Mrs. W., who came from Italy as an adult has both garlic and onion. Small amount of garlic. All kinds of authenntic Italians, too. :)

Interesting. All the Italian chefs I've seen on TV say never together. We can stick up 2 fingers next time and add what we like LOL. I always put the 2 in my pasta sauce.....

Same here, Islay, but I use restraint with garlic, unlike many people these days. I really dislike tasting garlic for many hours after eating something - despite brushing my teeth too.

FWIW, I like to make a chunky marinara sauce - saute finely chopped celery and carrot & coarsely chopped onion in olive oil with fresh ground pepper until quite soft, then add crushed/pureed canned tomatoes, bay leaf and chopped Italian parsley, then simmer for a short time until everything's merged - maybe 15-20 minutes. My other tomato sauce is simply sauteed onion, garlic, canned crushed/pureed tomatoes and lots of fresh basil - sometimes adding a can of plain tomato sauce too. I do not see the point of simmering tomato sauce for such a long time.

P.S. I may have missed this, but I believe it's best to use stainless steel or enamel for cooking tomatoes, not aluminum.

P.P.S. Almost forgot about fresh marjoram!

“I may have missed this, but I believe it's best to use stainless steel or enamel for cooking tomatoes, not aluminum.”

Good point, Carol. Though some might disagree, the acidity in tomatoes can react with aluminum affecting taste and color. I don’t have aluminum pans anymore but try to keep foil from touching tomatoes when covering a pan, such as lasagna. I either put a piece of parchment on first, or ”mold” the foil over the bottom of the pan to help “puff” it up before securing over the top…if that makes sense. IDK…years ago I’d notice dark spots where foil touched tomato sauce. Not appealing.

I've seen tomato sauce actually create holes in aluminum foil. I use parchment under foil for covering dishes too.

Fascinating. I use Reynolds Wrap on the lasagna as a lid, and haven't had any of these issues. Maybe it's just higher than most of the tomato. And I thought the pots we had abroad were aluminum because of the way stains scrubbed off, but maybe they were cheapa$$ stainless because they never had issues with tomatoes, both from local farms and canned, and there were tomatoes in just about everything I cooked except curry.

“Maybe it's just higher than most of the tomato.”

That could be; I’ve heard about no issues from others. Not sure it holds much merit, but years ago I called Reynolds with the tomato/aluminum question after hearing not to use them together. The response was ”absolutely don’t do it.” Who knows since they likely wanted to be cautious. I’ve just followed my own experience. I only noticed the discoloration, not any bitter taste that was mentioned.

^😳!

Thinking on, while I haven't had the tomato problem--and those stamped pots were certainly thin enough to get 'et through if it were going to happen. I still have a coffee cooking pot of a slightly better quality from the same place, which I know is "stainless" steel but magnets do not stick. I was surprised when my induction recognized it, but boy did it make an awful sound! So, likely the stamped pots were weird bad steel as well.

BUT, in reading y'all's messages, it occurred to me that I tend to shudder when I see people making lasagna in a metal pan. I mean, no skin off my nose, but it just seems so wrong! A roast with wine doesn't provoke the same shudder though there's acid there, too (and, personally, I use enameled), but for some subconscious reason, the metal pan seems all kinds of wrong for lasagna. Perhaps a buried ouch about aluminum and tomatoes? Though I did learn to make spaghetti sauce in my mother's Farberware stainless. ;)

“…it occurred to me that I tend to shudder when I see people making lasagna in a metal pan.”

Exactly, and especially those disposable foil pans.

@plllog, Fun science fact- not all stainless steels are magnetic, it’s dependent on their crystalline structure 😁

Interesting! I didn't even know they had crystalline structure. Just that kitchen magnets don't stick to the coffee cooker and the steel sensor of my induction does.

Though....come to think of it, my mother used giant foil pans for lasagna or moussaka for baking/freezing/heating for company, and they had no problem. The feeding of the dozens of close family. They don't give me the same crawly feeling that metal baking/roasting pans do, though I don't use them. Part of it may be texture. I have a Bunzlauer Keramik lasagna pan which is awesome. For the dozens I have a couple of truly giant white stoneware casseroles with handles from Sur La Table. They live on the top shelf in the cupboard over the oven (if they crash in an earthquake it'll be a bad enough one for them to be the least of my worries). They're too big for convenience, like fitting in the fridge or freezer with other things on the shelf x2. ;)

Just FWIW from Reynolds Consumer Products.

“Reynolds Wrap aluminum foil is safe for food use, including during cooking and storage. However, we generally do not recommend direct contact between aluminum foil and highly acidic foods such as tomatoes, tomato sauce, citrus, or vinegar for extended periods of time.

Acidic foods can react with aluminum, which may cause:
- Discoloration of the foil
- A metallic taste
- Darkening of the food (this is a cosmetic change, not a food safety issue)”