A Quick Spaghetti Meat Sauce, Simple, Fast and Tastes Great!

Adding lemon juice is great too, if you want your sauce to taste "saltier" but without adding more salt. (Works great with pots of soup too — doesn't taste "lemony," just seems to taste "saltier.") Lemon juice squirted on top of the spaghetti sauce on the plate is great too, or even a little fresh juice squeezed out of a lemon wedge or two. I find cooking the pasta to a hard al dente stage (just starting to soften), then straining it & adding it directly into the sauce is super (& I save a 1/2 cup of the pasta water too, to mix into the sauce, to thicken it & make it "silkier") — then I just let the spaghetti noodles finish off cooking for another 3 or so mins. right in the sauce, or until the spaghetti is truly al dente (cooked, but with a little "bite" to it = NOT completely mushy all the way thru, but is not hard either). Having the spaghetti soak up some of the tomatoe juices & spices, instead of more water, while it finishes cooking, really adds a lot of taste to it. I then remove the noodles with tongs & put them in large swirls in a large low serving bowl & pass the sauce around separately, with a sm. plate of lemon wedges on the table, & often a green salad, & garlic bread or toast on the side. I also make sure to add enough salt to the water when boiling the spaghetti noodles at the beginning — at least 2 tbsps. for a pot the size of the pot shown here — that really adds a lot of flavour too. I usually add a tbsp. of either light or extra virgin olive oil, mainly for flavour, to the drained hamburger meat before adding the onions (I also saute other veggies I may want to add in at the same time, until they're at least 1/2 to 3/4s the way cooked thru (celery taking the longest, then sweet green pepper next), & regularly stirring the veggies while they cook). I also add about 1/2 cup red wine to the sauce, if I happen to have it. I also add 5 or 6 squirts of Worcestershire sauce to the sauce, & a tbsp. or so of liquid beef boullion, it adds great flavour. I often add a tbsp. of light soya sauce (together with mushrooms in a dish, it's supposed to make beef taste "beefier.") I go light on the garlic, usually just adding 1/2 tsp. or so of garlic powder only, but that's always to taste, right? (And, yes, you can overcook fresh garlic so that it takes on a bit of a bitter taste to it!!) I also add 1/2 tsp., no more, of ground black pepper to the sauce. I also add 3 or 4 small bay leaves, which I remove before serving, & add in a couple of tsps. of dried basil, as well as the tbsp. or so of Italian seasoning to the sauce. In summertime especially I roll up at least 1/2 doz., or more, fresh basil leaves, slicing them across into "ribbons" & toss those in. I also add in a little extra oregano, a tsp. or so, & sometimes add some fresh in the summertime too. I use a little seasoning salt sometimes when cooking the hamburger meat, & I then go easy otherwise on reg. salt in the sauce. And l don't add as much sugar as in this recipe, but some, as I do like a somewhat sweet sauce — I make sure to taste as I go along, to determine amts, adding just a bit of whatever at a time. I do get a little crazy & also usually add a chopped med.-size sweet green pepper, a chopped celery rib, a chopped sm. dark green zucchini, + I also chop up any over-ripe tomatoes I may have sitting around, as well as adding fresh mushrooms to the sauce. (If I don't hv any celery, I sometimes add a little celery salt.) I feel the extra veggies add nutrition as well as taste, look appetizing in the sauce, and are also fairly inexpensive too, so… I have also had some tomatoe spaghetti sauce that had 1/4" or so carrot dice in it!! (And it was great!! That would add sweetness too!) And when I cut up a sm. zucchini, I cut the ends off, then cut it down lengthwise into long wedge-shaped strips, about 6, then chop those strips across so that ea. sm. pc. has some dark green outer skin on it — very pretty!! If I don't hv fresh mushrooms (& I prefer small brown creminis, as opposed to the white button mushrooms), I like to add a can of sliced mushrooms, & also add the brine from the mushroom can into the sauce as well. I sometimes like to mix up the pasta too — using anywhere from linguine to spaghettini, to penne, fusili, etc. etc. I like the light green spinach pastas too sometimes, especially in linguine. I'm just mentioning these things for anyone who likes to experiment from time to time — just my little diversions I've gotten into with my spaghetti meat / tomatoe sauces over many years — and I often just forget to add a bit of this or that now, with all of these possible additions & switcheroos!! (I found that I just got really bored making the same thing all the time!! And with all the additions I realized could throw in, my tom. sauce is never made exactly the same way twice, but it still has a great uniform flavour to it!!) So — hi to everyone from Toronto, Canada!!! (We have all winter long to experiment with recipes up here you know!!) 😁 👋

Try tossing some dried basil into the beef while you're browning it. That's a flavor and smell made in Heaven!!

My momma taught me to make my spaghetti sauce from scratch too. None of that jar stuff for her. It's not really hard & you can control & know what's in it. I add some fresh mushrooms & celery. 🍝🥖😋

Good, but you drained that pasta way too much. That pasta needs some pasta water to go with the sauce.

🍝🍝 Simple and looks DELISH.

Yes that’s how my mother cooked spaghetti, just salted water, so that’s how I prepare mine. No oil in it . Looks good Tammy just as your other sauce did. I must admit I love Prego and Ragu chunky garden sauces and adding to them to make it my own like my mother did.

Lol. Why not just cut with a for in or out of the pot with a for or spoon to see if noodles are done ? Lol u silly I TRYED doing that long ago when I first started cooking and thàts what I heard to how to check it . LOL MY MOTHER HAD A FIT . TOLD ME THIS IS HOW TO CHECK . SHE WAS NOT HAppy I did it they way u did .😅😅😅😅😅😅. I love it THAT WAS CUTE WATCHING U TOO DO THAT AS U LAUGHED 😂😂😂.

what all in the garlic blend

Cook the onions and beef together, it works great and the beef doesn’t get too dry before adding other ingredients. Love you and all your channels. You are a breath of fresh air and give encouragement to another breast cancer survivor. God bless you and your family. 🙏💕✝️

This sauce delicious! I added fresh garlic the last 5 minutes the sauce simmered. This is going to be the go-to spaghetti recipe in this house!
Thank you!

Looks good

I love this quick version!

You always make the delicious things- 🦋

Hey Tammy – Greetings from Atlanta. This is exactly like my Mama made spaghetti and I still do – except the sugar. I'll have to try that. Looks interesting.

the only thing you lacked was the parm cheese on top of the sauce as you served it,,,