Italian Meat Sauce I

  4.7 – 15 reviews  • Tomato

With chicken, beef, pork, or anything else, this honey BBQ sauce recipe creates a sweet and smoky sauce that is delicious. It is quite similar to the sauce from my preferred restaurant.

Prep Time: 45 mins
Cook Time: 5 hrs
Total Time: 5 hrs 45 mins
Servings: 12
Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients

  1. 4 tablespoons olive oil
  2. 1 onion, chopped
  3. 6 cloves garlic, sliced
  4. 3 (15 ounce) cans seasoned tomato sauce
  5. 3 (14.5 ounce) cans diced tomatoes with juice
  6. 6 cups water
  7. 8 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
  8. 2 pounds sweet Italian sausage
  9. 2 pounds ground sirloin
  10. 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, divided
  11. 1 cup grated Romano cheese
  12. 2 tablespoons dried oregano
  13. salt and pepper to taste
  14. 1 pound pork meat, cubed
  15. 1 cup dry bread crumbs
  16. 3 tablespoons garlic powder
  17. ⅓ cup grated Parmesan cheese
  18. 2 eggs

Instructions

  1. In large pot heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over low heat. Add chopped onion and two-thirds of sliced garlic. Saute 5 minutes. Add tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, water and tomato paste. Simmer.
  2. Meanwhile, in large skillet, heat remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Saute remaining garlic 1 to 2 minutes. Add sausage and brown, about three minutes on each side. After browning, cover and reduce heat. Cook for 10 minutes, remove from heat, and cut sausages into halves. Add to tomato mixture.
  3. Cook pork over medium heat in sausage skillet until brown. Add to tomato mixture. Add 3 tablespoons parsley, Romano, oregano, salt and pepper to tomato sauce. Continue to simmer over low heat.
  4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Cover a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. In large bowl combine ground sirloin, bread crumbs, garlic powder, remaining parsley, parmesan and eggs. Form 1 inch balls and place on cookie sheet. Cook until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Add meatballs to sauce. Continue to cook sauce for 5 hours. Serve over fusilli or ravioli.

Nutrition Facts

Calories 661 kcal
Carbohydrate 46 g
Cholesterol 134 mg
Dietary Fiber 8 g
Protein 42 g
Saturated Fat 12 g
Sodium 2542 mg
Sugars 26 g
Fat 36 g
Unsaturated Fat 0 g

Reviews

Amber Green
This was really good and easy to adapt! I fudged a lot of it because of what I had on-hand – using two jars of homemade spaghetti sauce in place of the tomato sauce and water, all ground beef, adding a handful of leftover shredded zucchini, and skipping the meatballs. My family loved it!
Jennifer Leonard
I made this and it was phenomenal! The family loved it. I added 3 tbsp each of fresh thyme, fresh oregano and, fresh basil, upped the garlic by two cloves, and used a separate meatball recipe substituting rolled oats for the bread crumbs. I also added a dash of cinnamon. I will make again some day. It took 3 hours to prep, so it will be awhile until I make it again. Great recipe
Christopher Tucker
I cut back on the water by a cup and added in a cup of quality red wine. I made no other changes. The recipe did not specify how long to let the sauce simmer, I basically let it simmer most of the afternoon. My family raved about this meat sauce–we all thought this was absolutely delicious. It was simple to make but it really fools you into thinking you cooked all day when the stove does all the work for you. I will be making this recipe again.
Benjamin Mcbride
Very good sauce and enjoyable to make!
Stephanie Smith
I like this recipe,have made it several times.
Richard Guzman
Fantastic recipe, turned out great. I did make some minor adjustments. I did the sausage and pork, but went with ground beef instead of meatballs for convenience sake. I only had 2 cans of diced tomatoes, so I went with 2 cans of each of the diced and tomato sauce and just four cans of tomato paste. With roughly 1.5 hours remaining, I added a big can of tomato puree to make up for the missing cans. I stayed with the recipe on spices, except I added a tablespoon of sugar and a 3 tablespoons of garlic/onion spice mix. I also added pepperoni, 2 green peppers, and mushrooms (and extra minced garlic), none of which were called for in the recipe. Other minor changes: I chopped the onion in to bigger slices instead of small. I used shredded parmesan as a substitute for romano, which I did not have on hand. All in all, the changes worked out well. I thought it tasted great, and my girlfriend loved it.
Stephanie Sellers
It’s surprising that this recipe hasn’t gotten more action here. I see that about a thousand people have saved it, but there are only 8 reviews. This is really an excellent recipe. If you disagree, it means you haven’t yet made it, or you accidentally blended in paint thinner. I like to replace most of the meats with turkey versions, which i’ve convinced myself is completely healthy. It’s still some of the best pasta sauce i’ve ever had. Be careful with the servings listed. I found that the “12” it lists would have to be pretty generous portions. In any case, if you’re looking for a meaty red sauce, there is none better than this one. Make it once as is, and then experiment – you’re certain to fall upon something that your family, or friends, or random people you drag in off the street will walk away from the table with a smile – most likely discovering that they ate WAY more than they had planned.
Jennifer Scott DVM
If I had five thumbs, that’s what I would give. Changed nothing and it came out great.
Eric Orr
GREAT!!! Recipe
Brandy Goodwin
wow!!! this sauce it the best!! didnt change a thing and it was 4 pumps to the good! freeze the leftovers it is alot thanks, Justin Simmons
Caitlin Clark
Great sauce! The only thing I did differently was to use uncooked quick oats (oatmeal) instead of the bread crumbs. My family loved it.
Kristina Porter
Wow, this was so good. Lots of flavour and meat.
Benjamin Cabrera
This recipe was a hit! (with me, and the people who ate it) I halved everything and added just a tad bit more oregano, parsley and romano cheese. It was my first time ever making any kind of sauce and it was fun and worked well.
Elizabeth Hall
This is one of the best meat sauces I have ever tasted. This sauce has a wonderful flavor and none of the bitterness that is so common in many sauces. I served this to my family tonight and they loved it…. I highly recommend this recipe!
Benjamin Thomas
Yummy!! My boyfriend and I made this together, drank wine, put on music and we’re new to cooking but OH MY GOD YUM I come from a big Italian family where everyone has their own way of making sauce.This will now be mine 2 thumbs up or more…this sauce was awesome I wish I could post a picture of him sneaking in the kitchen every five minutes to taste it again Perfecto!

 

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