I received this recipe as part of a series of wedding gifts from a very close friend. It makes a ton and is rich, savory, and aromatic. Take the largest pot you can locate, if possible. I’m talking about BIG. Pasta recipes can be frozen with any leftover sauce.
| Prep Time: | 10 mins |
| Cook Time: | 2 hrs 30 mins |
| Total Time: | 2 hrs 40 mins |
| Servings: | 30 |
| Yield: | 30 servings |
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 pound mild sausage
- 4 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 2 teaspoons salt (Optional)
- 2 teaspoons dried rosemary
- 1 ½ teaspoons dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 76 fluid ounces water
- 1 (29 ounce) can tomato puree
- 3 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
Instructions
- Heat butter and olive oil together with onion and garlic in a large pot over medium heat; cook and stir ground beef and sausage in the onion mixture until browned and crumbly, 10 to 15 minutes. Stir Italian seasoning, salt, rosemary, oregano, and black pepper into ground beef-sausage mixture; simmer for 20 minutes.
- Pour water, tomato puree, and tomato paste into ground beef-sausage mixture; simmer, stirring occasionally, over low heat until flavors have combined, at least 2 hours.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 137 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 7 g |
| Cholesterol | 26 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Protein | 6 g |
| Saturated Fat | 4 g |
| Sodium | 564 mg |
| Sugars | 4 g |
| Fat | 10 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Making this for the 3rd time right now. I agree, to much water for sure, but the combination of spices is a tad different than our old favorite, but is a big hit with my family of men. I always drain my burger meat and or sausage, so no grease here. I do add 1 tb of sugar to offset the tomato paste. After all is combined, reducing the water to 1-2 cups, I dump it in my instant pot for 30 minutes, and voila! Instant goodness and quick! It’s a keeper for me.
Was expecting more flavor. Followed the recipe exactly until adding the water. 9.5 cups (76 ounces) seemed excessive. Started with 5 cups, but as the sauce simmered, more was added, totaling 7 cups (48 ounces). I added the salt, but I feel that it needs more. Seemed a little bland. Could use more salt and garlic, either is more chopped cloves or garlic salt. Next time, maybe some crushed red pepper flakes or hot italian sausage. It just needed more. I would try making it again with those changes.
This spaghetti sauce is AMAZING! I also use this sauce to make lasagna. I’ve been making this recipe for several years. I took the advice of some reviewers and did the following: 1/4 cup of butter + the olive oil I added 1 small can of sliced mushrooms and sauteed them when the onions were halfway done. I add the fresh garlic when sauteing onions. I use 2 pounds of breakfast sausage and no ground beef (this is SOOO much better than if I use half ground beef.) I use about 4 tablespoons of Italian seasoning and omit the rosemary and oregano I add 1 teaspoon of crushed red pepper flakes To the sauce I added about 2 teaspoons of garlic powder I added 1 cup of cooking wine I added 2 tablespoons of sugar I only used 1 teaspoon of salt due to the salt in the sausage I used 2 14 oz cans of fire roasted tomatoes plus the 3 cans of tomato paste I added 32 oz (4 cups) of water and stirred it up and it was already kinda thick, so added another 20 oz of water (total of 52 oz) After simmering for 2 hours it was a little runny, so I put 2 tablespoons of cornstartch in some water then added that. Ended up adding a total of 6 tablespoons of cornstarch to thicken it well. FANTASTICO!!!
Sorry, but this was a ridiculously BAD recipe. First of all, there is ALREADY rosemary and oregano in Italian seasoning, so the addition of more of those spices was overpowering. The 1/2 cup of butter is an over the top addition that’s not necessary to saute the minimal amount of vegetables in this dish. Unless you actually LIKE a layer of grease floating on the top of your spaghetti sauce. The excessive amount of water just turned this into a meat soup, even after 3 1/2 hours of a low, uncovered simmer. Pass this one by.
This is now my goto spaghetti recipe !! Awesome ! Would love to see some of the other recipes in that wedding gift too…..I bet they are all amazing !! Thank you so much for sharing this with us !
Excellent! I did have to cook it down quite a bit that that just added more flavor. Next time I will add more garlic at my partner’s suggestion.
This was a great recipe, though I made some changes by adding a bit of sugar, garlic powder and season salt. Also way less water.
This is our favorite spaghetti sauce recipe. We love it! We’ve made it several times and it freezes well. The only thing I changed was the amount of water. I used less than it called for but I don’t remember how much I used.
11.1.21 Made exactly as written, tasted, and then adjusted to our tastes. I added a glug of red wind, basil, some fennel seed, and crushed red pepper flakes. Not sure why there’s so much water in this recipe, but I will try reducing that a bit in the future to shorten the cook time, but it does need enough for the flavors to meld. Containers went into the freezer for quick weeknight meals, and I’d make this again.
It is always interesting to me that people say they loved the recipe and then proceed to say how they changed it! Anyway, despite my concern about so much butter and so much water, I followed the recipe exactly and was disappointed. After three hours of uncovered simmering it was too thin, and swimming in grease. If I made it again I would just use equal amounts of butter and oil (3 Tbsp each) and half the water. For my personal taste I would probably swap out the oregano for basil as I found the oregano flavor a bit too prominent, and I would use an additional onion and more garlic. As others have noted, it is important to use San Marzano strained tomatoes and not tomato sauce. Next time I would also add a can of Mutti finely chopped tomatoes as well, and I would use that can to add the water – probably just one but maybe two. Anyway I now have a freezer full of the thin sauce but it is a lesson learned.
Delicious
This is a very easy recipe to make, easy to freeze, and tastes great. I double the time for simmering, but still find the sauce watery. During reheating the extra moisture burns off. I find this recipe very vestige for spaghetti, ravioli, and other pastas.
YES, the 9.5 cups of water IS too much haha. I followed the recipe correctly and I even let it simmer for an extra hour. All I got was a big pot of acid flavor soup. I added some cornstarch to give it the thickness of a sauce, along with some sugar and additional herbs. After that I managed to turn this garbage into a mediocre sauce!
Delizioso! Deep, rich flavors, exactly what I was looking for. I made the recipe almost as written with a few minor changes. My amateur cook sensibilities panicked at the thought of a half cup of butter, so I used only 1/4 cup, which seems to be plenty. I also used hot Italian sausage in place of mild and added 1 tablespoon of red pepper flakes. If you don’t like things spicy either halve that or omit it, but it does add a nice zing. I was a little spooked by comments that 76 oz was too much water and I dislike watery sauce. Instead I used 32 oz beef broth and 4 oz red wine. The pot was covered with one of those screen spatter covers so water vapor could escape. After the first hour of simmering the aroma in the kitchen was heavenly! But the liquid was starting to cook down so I added another 16 oz of water for a total of 52 oz liquids. After 3 hours simmering it had the nice thick consistency I was looking for and was served with a sprinkle of grated Parmesan/ Romano cheese not shown in the photo. This one is a keeper!
super good!
Very delicious and a very easy recipe to make!
So disappointing! This sauce was extremely watery!! Thought I was drinking water downed soup, not a thick sauce.
I made this today, it was really great. I browned the meat and then added the onions and garlic after a bit, rather than onions first. (Not sure if that made a difference, it’s just the order I would cook these in normally). Based on the other reviews, I ended up adding the water in slow increments. I think in the end I used 5 or six cups, but could have added more. It was thick enough to pile onto garlic bread and not soak through. It received lots of compliments from five young people and husband. I will definitely make it again.
Excellent spaghetti sauce!
It was very good sauce once I made a few edits. First I reduced the water since I didn’t have the time to let it simmer for hours. Second I added some additional once all the other ingredients were combined. I added 1 tsp sugar, 1 tbsp garlic powder, 1 tbsp basil, and 1 tbsp parsley.
This sauce was really good, I would make it again. I used 2 additional cans of tomatoes to substitute some of the water. I also like my sauce with veggies so I added diced red and green peppers as well as some mushrooms. It was great!