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homemade chunky meat sauce sweetssavant.com America's best food blog

Homemade chunky tomato and meat sauce with spinach

Demetra Overton
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Servings 4 -6 servings

Ingredients
  

  • 1 pound of spaghetti fettuccine or penne pasta
  • 1 and 1/2 pounds of ground chuck beef ground turkey or Italian sausage
  • 1-2 teaspoons salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1/2 cup diced onion
  • 2 garlic cloves sliced
  • two 14 ounce cans diced tomatoes
  • 1/2 - 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes optional
  • 3-5 leaves of fresh basil optional
  • fresh grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions
 

  • Bring the pasta water to a boil
  • While the water is heating, brown the beef, turkey or Italian sausage in a Dutch oven. Do this in batches to prevent the meat from steaming and turning gray
  • Season the meat with salt, pepper and basil
  • Stir in diced onion and cook for 5 minutes
  • Stir in garlic cloves and cook for another minute
  • Add canned tomatoes
  • Add crushed red pepper flakes and basil if you're using them
  • Simmer the sauce for 15 minutes ( you can simmer longer if you like, up to an hour. Add water to keep the sauce from drying out)
  • While the sauce is simmering, cook the pasta
  • Cook the pasta for 2 minutes less than recommended on the package
  • Drain the pasta and add to the sauce. Let the pasta simmer in the sauce for 2 -3 minutes
  • Serve the pasta with fresh shaved Parmesan cheese.