Spaghetti with Homemade Meat Sauce

Hirsh and I eat a lot of pasta. It's a quick, convenient weeknight meal which is perfect when we both get home late. While I really like Barilla jarred sauce, I was getting a little bored with it and decided it would be fun to make homemade meat spaghetti sauce. Since this recipe made a lot of sauce, I measured out portions for 2 (1 1/2 cups each) and froze it in ziplock containers for later use. The recipe is modified from my Betty Crocker cookbook.

Homemade Meat Sauce

2 28 oz cans diced tomatoes with italian seasoning

1 6 oz can tomato paste

1 medium onion, chopped

6 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp dried basil leaves

1 tsp dried oregano leaves

1/2 tsp pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 C water

1 lb ground beef

1. Brown ground beef in frying pan until beef is in small pieces and completely cooked through. Make sure to remove all the liquid fat! Set aside cooked meat.

2. Saute onion and garlic in olive oil in 6 qt pot until tender.

3. Add the rest of the ingredients and cooked ground meat to the pot and stir.

4. Boil and then reduce to medium low heat.

5. Simmer for 1 hour stirring occasionally.

6. After one hour, let cool slightly and serve or portion into containers. Total yield was 7 1/2 cups. (Note: 1 1/2 C is good portion for two people. It will stay fresh in fridge for 2 weeks or freezer for 1 year.)

7. Serve over cooked spaghetti!

Difficulty: Easy

Debbie's Rating: 10

Hirsh's Rating: 9

It's a good thing we liked it because have four more portions to go!