Spaghetti Sauce

This spaghetti sauce is our family’s longtime favorite.  It is rich and delicious.  The flavor is unique, but we have never managed to make a good batch without the single jar of pasta sauce as the base.  It does not seem to matter what brand of pasta sauce is used.

This recipe makes what is usually labeled “Traditional” sauce with the exception
that it does have meat in it, but not nearly enough to call it a traditional meat sauce.  For other flavors, see Variations below.

Ingredients: This serves 8-12 depending on portion size (we eat large portions)

1 lb Hamburger
1 jar Pasta Sauce
75-80oz Tomato Sauce (this would be 10 8oz or 5 15oz cans)
1 can tomato paste
2 Bay leaves
1 Tablespoon Parsley
1 teaspoon Oregano
1 teaspoon Basil
1 teaspoon Garlic
¼ teaspoon thyme
¼ cup dried onion

2 teaspoons Salt (Optional – this is if you are using salt-free tomato sauce)

Brown Hamburger. (This photo shows browning hamburger in a different pan than I am using for the sauce.  I usually use the same pan, but forgot to take a picture and had to use one from another recipe.)

Add pasta sauce, spices, and Tomato Paste and stir well.  This will break up the clumps of tomato paste when they are stirred against the clumps of hamburger and spices.

Add Tomato Sauce and stir well.  Heat on Meduim and slowly and incrementally turn down to Low as it starts to simmer.  I do this by turning down about ¼ the way about every 5 minutes.  Stir thoroughly and often to keep it from sticking and burning.  I usually cook this for a couple of hours to allow the flavors to thoroughly blend, but if it is completely heated and the dried onions have hydrated (stir and look for them), that would be enough.

Serve over freshly Boiled Pasta

Variations:

You could really use any kind or combination of ground meat you like – Italian sausage or Turkey would be good choices.

Leave the meat out altogether and have meatless sauce.

Use fresh instead of dried onions – just throw them in to soften up and sauté a bit when your hamburger is almost browned.


If you want a specialty flavor – For:

Meat – add another pound of ground meat.

Pepper – add 1-2 peppers chopped finely with the fresh onions to sauté a bit with the meat.

Garlic – increase to 1 Tablespoon or add a couple cloves of fresh garlic smashed or chopped.

Tomato Basil – increase Basil to 1 Tablespoon (leave out oregano and thyme) and replace 15-16oz of Tomato Sauce with 2 large fresh diced Tomatoes.

Mushroom – add when sauce is simmering – chop them to the desired size and add a handful at a time until you get the amount that looks good to you.

Thank you to A Southern Fairytale for the linky!