This spaghetti with meat sauce recipe has been passed down to me from my mom, and it’s the only spaghetti sauce I ever make! It’s a simple scratch sauce that takes just a few minutes to prep, and a low simmer on the stove gives it an intensely rich, meaty flavor.
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This Spaghetti Sauce Uses 1 Secret Ingredient That Makes It “The Best”
When I finished college and moved into my first apartment, I wrote down my mom’s recipe for our favorite family dinner and plopped it into my tattered recipe binder. But it never tasted quite as good as my mom’s.
My sister texted me a picture of her copy of my mom’s spaghetti recipe, as seen below. I then realized I was missing one crucial ingredient that makes this spaghetti and meat sauce recipe better than all the rest: dried cloves!
Cloves aren’t typically found in homemade meat sauce but they add so much flavor and shouldn’t be skipped.
This is the ultimate Sunday, long-simmer dinner that you can easily have at the ready thanks to a simply stocked pantry and a few foundation refrigerator ingredients I can always find at my local Smith’s Marketplace / Kroger store.
I promise you it’s worth the wait!
Enjoy!
My Mom’s Secrets to REALLY Good Spaghetti Sauce
Salt your pasta water generously. You want your pasta to have flavor on its own, so don’t be shy — salt that water like the sea!
While the spaghetti sauce cooks low and slow for 3 hours, stir it occasionally. You don’t want anything sticking to the bottom of the pot and burning, adding a bitter flavor to the meat sauce.
Serve this meat sauce with regular spaghetti noodles. It would be just as good served with any other twirly pasta, tortellini, ravioli, or even as a filler for lasagna.
The Main Ingredients (+ Notes)
The full recipe, with amounts, can be found in the recipe card below.
- Ground Beef. I use 85% lean ground angus beef for my sauce so it still has flavor but not a lot of fat. You could also use ground turkey.
- Canned tomato products. Mom has always used a blend of diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and tomato sauce for a nuanced tomato flavor and perfect texture. Since canned tomatoes are the star ingredient in this spaghetti sauce, make sure to buy from a quality brand or else your sauce could wind up tasting overly acidic or weirdly metallic.
- Beef broth. Adds another layer of meatiness.
- Canned mushrooms. Typically I use fresh mushrooms in recipes, but this is one where I never, ever, ever do.
- Onion, celery, and fresh garlic. They’re always lolling around the refrigerator crisper waiting to be used.
- A splash of wine. Mom says to use the empty mushroom can as your measurement guide. Purchase a variety that is of the same quality you’re willing to drink. I usually use a good boxed blend or Pinot noir in this recipe.
- Spices. Mom’s recipe calls for a blend of dried basil and oregano, kosher salt, freshly ground black pepper, and a pinch of sugar for sweetness. Don’t skip out on the bay leaves, they make a huge difference!
- 🤫The secret ingredient — dried whole cloves! My mom learned this trick from her friend Virginia, and adding a few whole cloves is her secret ingredient. She uses 5-6 cloves but my husband prefers 4. The cloves give it an earthy, spiced flavor that’s not often easy to place.
Heidi’s Tip: If you’re out of wine or are opposed to using it, you can add ¼ cup of balsamic vinegar instead to add a little acid and umami.
How to Make Spaghetti with Meat Sauce From Scratch (+ Tips)
- Brown the beef. Ground beef can be fairly fatty, so you’ll want to drain off any excess fat before adding the aromatics to prevent your meat sauce from tasting greasy.
- Cook the aromatics until soft. Add the chopped celery, onion, and garlic to the ground beef and cook for just a few minutes until softened. Try not to let the onion and garlic develop too much color otherwise your sauce might taste bitter.
- Bring to a boil … Dump the rest of the spaghetti sauce ingredients into the pot and bring the mixture to a boil.
- … Then simmer low and slow. Once boiling, reduce the heat and let it simmer on the stove for 3 hours. 3 hours sounds like forever, but that’s how long it takes to make a rich, flavorful meat sauce. Just do what the Italians do, and fuhgetaboutit.
- Cook your spaghetti. Once the sauce has had time to simmer, all that’s left to do is boil the spaghetti noodles according to package instructions and dish it up!
Heidi’s Tip: You can ditch the spaghetti noodles altogether and use the meat sauce to make lasagna, stuffed shells, and so much more.
Storing, Freezing, and Reheating
If you wind up with leftovers, you can easily reheat them the next day. I recommend reheating leftover spaghetti in a covered saucepan over medium-low heat. (You may need to add a splash of beef broth to loosen up the pasta.)
You can also freeze the sauce separately and then make fresh spaghetti noodles when you’re about to eat it. To reheat, first defrost the sauce in the refrigerator for 1 day, or, add to a large pot, cover, and heat on medium to medium-low until thawed.
If you make this recipe, please let me know! Leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating on this recipe below and leave a comment, take a photo and tag me on Instagram with #foodiecrusheats.
THE BEST Spaghetti and Meat Sauce Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound 85% lean ground beef
- 1 yellow onion , chopped
- 4 stalks celery , chopped
- 4 cloves garlic , minced or pressed
- 29 ounces canned diced tomatoes
- 29 ounces tomato sauce
- 6 ounces tomato paste
- 14 ounces canned sliced mushrooms (NOT fresh!)
- 1 cup red wine (I prefer Pinot Noir)
- 15 ounces can beef broth
- 4-6 whole cloves (we prefer 4)
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
- ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley (or 4 teaspoons dried)
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 pound dried spaghetti noodles
- grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Brown the beef. In a large heavy-bottomed stock pot over medium-high heat, cook the ground beef until browned, about 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain the rendered fat and add the meat back to the pot.
- Cook the aromatics. Add the chopped onion, celery, and garlic and cook until the vegetables soften, about 5-7 more minutes.
- Simmer low and slow. Add the rest of the ingredients (except the spaghetti noodles and Parmesan), stir, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to simmer, stir and cover with a lid, and cook for at least 3 hours on medium-low heat, stirring occasionally.
- Cook the spaghetti. Follow the package directions and be sure to generously salt the water. Drain and then mix into the spaghetti sauce.
- Garnish and enjoy! Serve with grated or ground Parmesan cheese and chopped fresh parsley if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
What to Serve with Homemade Spaghetti
We always serve this with a super crunchy iceberg salad tossed with sliced cucumbers and tomatoes and dressed in my favorite red wine vinaigrette and a few slices of buttery garlic bread.
If you’re looking for a little bit more, here are a few side dish ideas to make your meal.
More Easy Spaghetti Recipes
- Pasta Pomodoro — the authentic sauce I learned how to make in Italy!
- Homemade Pesto Pasta
- Spaghetti Carbonara
- Spaghetti with Meatballs
- Crab Spaghetti with Lemon Gremolata
- Stanley Tucci’s Zucchini Pasta
- Pasta Puttanesca
- Mediterranean Tuna Pasta
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Shelly
Thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe! It’s the BEST sauce EVER!
So glad you agree Shelly!!
jd
If you don’t put the spaghetti in the sauce, the left over sauce makes good manwhiches!
For sure JD. Or you could always make spaghetti tacos :) too
Sarah
oh, SO good! I have never cooked with cloves before and wasn’t sure what to expect. WOW, do they add flavor! I doubled the recipe and used 1 lb ground hamburger and 1 lb ground sausage. Made for my new man friend – which his mom’s spaghetti is his favorite. Thanks for helping me into his heart :-)
Paulina
Hi, any substitute for the wine? Would love to try this recipe but we really do not like wine and I know I will just make an epic fail choosing the right one for this recipe since I don’t drink at all.
Paulina, instead of wine, add 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar to add a little acid and umami. But also remember, the alcohol cooks out of the sauce and is only a flavoring.
Janet
Oh no!!!! I accidently did 1/2 cup!!!!
Stacy
Have ground cloves in pantry. Will that work?
Derek
I was wondering the same if you should use whole or ground
Use whole cloves, not ground, then fish them out after.
No, use whole cloves instead.
Morgan
Do you chop the mushrooms before cooking? Excited to try this one!!
Hi Morgan, no I don’t chop them, I just leave them sliced. I like the big mushroom bite.
Cathy Johnson
I tried this recipe for your mom’s spaghetti sauce, and it was perfect ! I’m Italian and was taught many years ago how to make a good sauce. But over the busy years, it started not tasting so good, and it seemed okay to just buy a nice jar already prepared. But after reading your recipe which was very close to my mom’s, and being inspired to try again, now I’m hooked and loving it. Thank you for turning my “cooking” back on !!! This is a great recipe !
Jillian
Love your site for recipes – your chicken Thai soup in the crockpot is one of our go-to recipes. Many people in our family suffer from reflux but still love to indulge in a good spaghetti sauce (like your recipe) from time to time. Unfortunately, tomato paste is a huge trigger for reflux. While I know it would give this recipe a lot of flavor, do you have any suggestions on how to tweak this recipe to avoid using tomato paste? Would love to hear your thoughts :)
Mike
This was very tasty but I found it to be a bit watery. Maybe an extra can of tomato paste or less broth/wine?
Shauna Svekla
I just made this yesterday and mine too looked really watery at first! But I cooked it for the recommended 3 hours and with the lid slightly ajar and a lot of it evaporated/soaked in, creating a thicker sauce :)
You’re right Shauna, it cooks down to a rich sauce over time. The hardest part is not burning the roof of your mouth with all of the taste testing samples.
DONNA GUILLEN
I’ll never forget my Mom’s spaghetti sauce the day I got my wisdom teeth out- I couldn’t resist- everyone was coming over for a party. I had the spaghetti sauce and it was so hot I burned the stitches right out – totally worth it tho- had to go back and get stitches the next day. Your sauce is same as my moms-including canned mushrooms
So glad you liked it Donna, and that it brought back memories even if they weren’t the best ones :)
Kristen
Heidi, Delicous recipe! I used 5 cloves and I think my husband agrees with yours- I’ll use 4 next time. As with many red sauces, the flavor the next day was even better! My husband said he could eat it with a spoon like a chili. Thanks as always for sharing your family best!
I’m so glad he liked it Kristen! I’m with your husband on the eating it like chili part, it’s even great on leftover french bread like a sloppy joe!
Jo Stevens
Love your receipts Can you tell me a good red wine and white wine to cook with. Thank you
Thanks Jo. Really any decent cooking wine will do. I’ll often buy a good boxed wine to store in the cupboard so I can use just a bit at a time as needed. Then you don’t have to open a whole bottle, unless you’d like to. I tend to use chardonnay or sauv blanc for the whites and a blended red or Pinot noir for the reds. I feel like a cabernet is just a bit too robust for this recipe, but if it’s all you have, I’d rec’d using 3/4 cup instead.
Fransje
Can I put this in the slow cooker after I do the meat on the stove first?
I haven’t made it in the slow cooker before Fransje, but I’m pretty sure you could. Let me know how it turns out if you do.
Carol
I came here to ask that!
Blaire
I love that your mom measures the wine in the mushroom can… my mom does the same thing!!
Isn’t that funny! Glad to hear she has a sister-in-measuring-arms. :)
Maria
Is it possible for me to freeze the rest of the sauce?
HI Maria, absolutely! We do just that quite often!!
Joan McCallum
so many canned products. apart from tubed tomato paste and canned tomatoes as it is often hard to buy tomatoes ripe enough to cook on the day I use fresh ingredients..home made stock, tomato sauce, fresh mushrooms and fresh spaghetti…just lie mother used to make. Do approve of yous sisters use of stevia instead of cane sugar. s
Hannah L.
This looks so INVITING and DELICIOUS!! I am starving now! And the pictures are beautiful! Everything coated nicely, and the noodles so happy and twirly!
Zila
I do not drink wine so i have no idea how to pick a good one. What wine do you use, like exactly ?
Hi Zila! The key to cooking with wine is to purchase one that is of the same quality you’d be willing to drink, but since you don’t drink that might be hard to tell. I’d say look for a bottle around $10 or so. I tend to use chardonnay or sauvignon blanc for the white wines because they’re what I like to drink, or a blended red or Pinot noir for red wine. You could also check to see if your store offers splits of wine so it doesn’t all go to waste.
Jillian
We don’t care for mushrooms in my house. Anyone tried it without? I’m always on the hunt for a good sauce and have never found one that’s just right. I love making a bunch and freezing it. Makes crazy weeknights easier.
If you aren’t a fan of mushrooms, you can certainly leave them out :)
Becky
Looks so g ood, I I will try it soon. Love reading all your Mother’s ideas
! Thanks so much.
Susan
My daughter gave me a couple envelops of powdered mushrooms that she got at a farmers market and I am going to try using some of that powder when I make this sauce for my husbands brother and family’s visit in April. I think that you would not recognize the mushrooms as mushrooms that way, just an added bit of flavor.
Laura | Tutti Dolci
This seriously looks like the best spaghetti recipe ever! Love the cloves – such a brilliant idea that I’m sure adds major flavor. Can’t wait to try this!
کورین
such a great site
Patti langrock
So hungry for some of that yummy sauce. Thanks for the feature. It’s so easy to forget a prime ingredient when you make something so many times. It just shows it’s a favorite.
Holly
Still one of my all time favorites!! And yes- the cloves are definitely the stand out ingredient! I love it over zucchini noodles (zoodles) also.
Kari
We must be long-lost relatives, other than my mom’s spaghetti recipe, I’ve never seen anyone else use dried cloves! And of course canned mushrooms.
That is awesome to know there are “others” of us out there Kari! Where did you grow up? Maybe its a regional thing?
Robin Deems
My ex-mother-in-law made fantastic spaghetti sauce. The family did not like onions, so she took a whole peeled onion and stuck a bunch of cloves in it, and cooked it submerged in the sauce. The cloves really added a nice flavor.
That’s a cool idea Robin. Then you can just fish out the onion at the end if you don’t like onions but like the flavor.
Dave
Your mom’s sauce is ALMOST identical to mine but I did pick up some ideas from yours – chopped celery and cloves. And, yes, it goes well on any pasta and super in lasagna. I would just omit the celery or chop it much finer or use ground seed – sparingly. Oh, lasagna – do not skimp on the cheese in the layers. Yum!! :-)
Dave! Isn’t it a great, solid recipe?!! You gotta try it with the cloves, and let me know what you think! Super good idea to chop the celery finer for lasagna, and yes, CHEESE! Always cheese! Thanks for the comment!
Nicole - Cooking for Keeps
Aren’t Mom’s recipes the best? I did the same thing you did, I made my mom’s spaghetti and meatballs over and over and eventually it just didn’t taste the same anymore. A couple years ago I made her write it all down for me and now it’s perfect every time! This looks so good, we’re definitely going to try it! I bet the cloves give the whole sauce such a nice warmth.
Hahaha! I’m glad I’m not the only one Nicole. I swear, I thought I had it down since I’d made it so many dang times!!! XO
The fart who knocks for you
I’m making a 3lb beef version of this right now. I don’t F around. What has me was the cloves. My mom used to make it that way until my dad bit into a whole clove and it wrecked him. He was having dental issues and apparently it was very unpleasant. He banned cloves from the house. He still brings this up decades later.
Deb
I’m pretty sure the cloves mean cloves of garlic! LOL
Stefanie
no it is cloves and it is delicious in meat sauce and put on roasts ( beef and pork) just very little 1- 4 at the most. I can’t even think of gulash without cloves. I got that from my mother 50 years ago and she got it from hers !
Linda Swoveland
Hello Heidi,
I’m planning to make your delicious spaghetti and meat sauce this coming week.
In order to not leave any cloves in the sauce, the hubby wouldn’t like to bite into one, could I use ground cloves? And if so could you tell me about how much?
Thank you for your wonderful recipes.
Hi Linda, I’ve never made it with ground cloves so I’m not sure how it would taste. Let me know if you try it and how it turns out.
Marci
I’m making. It now smells yummy
Ha, your poor dad. My husband gets on me too if there are a few too many cloves slipped into the sauce. But they do make this sauce extra special.
Sarah E Barnes
I tried your recipe and found it to be very good. I had to leave certain items out because my husband doesn’t eat mushrooms. I also used Italian seasoning which had your same ingredients except for the bay leaves. Instead of two tlbs of sugar I used 4. I didn’t do the 3 hours, but zi did let it simmer for 1 hour. Anyway, it was very delicious. I am printing this out and put it in my file. Had rolls and a salad with it
Bennie Dowty
I never used cloves in my sauce until I tried this recipe. I made it just like the recipe the first time and it was great. Of course we all add our own twists to recipes, I add some Italian Sausage and throw in some Fennel Seeds now. But what a wonderful recipe. I had never put celery in my sauce before. I have this printed and make it up and freeze it for quick dinners when I’m too lazy to cook.