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

Homemade chunky tomato and meat sauce with spinach

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Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Servings: 4 -6 servings
Ingredients Method

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

Method
 

  1. Bring the pasta water to a boil
  2. 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
  3. Season the meat with salt, pepper and basil
  4. Stir in diced onion and cook for 5 minutes
  5. Stir in garlic cloves and cook for another minute
  6. Add canned tomatoes
  7. Add crushed red pepper flakes and basil if you're using them
  8. 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)
  9. While the sauce is simmering, cook the pasta
  10. Cook the pasta for 2 minutes less than recommended on the package
  11. Drain the pasta and add to the sauce. Let the pasta simmer in the sauce for 2 -3 minutes
  12. Serve the pasta with fresh shaved Parmesan cheese.