Homemade Beefy Spaghetti Sauce
Secret Ingredient
In a large pot, brown and crumble ground beef along with the onions and green pepper. Season with salt & pepper.
Drain excess grease. Put beef back into the pot. Add in diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and tomato paste.
Give it all a good stir. Then add in grape jelly, Parmesan cheese, minced garlic, Italian seasoning and dried basil.
Stir then cover and allow mixture to simmer gently for at least 30 minutes. Or, you can put it all into a slow cooker and let it simmer on low for several hours.
This sauce really just gets better and better the longer it simmers. And leftovers freeze beautifully. This makes quite a bit of sauce so it’s good for a small crowd.
Cook’s Note: If you prefer more sauce than meat (like I do), then just use one pound of beef. If you like it really meaty then use two pounds of beef. The original recipe calls for sausage (one package hot, and one package sweet). You can also use ground turkey or pork. It is a very adaptable recipe. And, if you have it on hand, instead of the dried basil, the original recipe suggested using 12 leaves of fresh basil, cut into ribbons, and added in 5 minutes before serving.
Enjoy!
Post originally published: September 2012
Updated and republished: February 2019
- 2 pounds ground beef or sausage, (or one pound of each)
- 1 large green pepper chopped
- 1 small onion chopped
- 3 (15 oz) cans diced tomatoes
- 2 (15 oz) cans tomato sauce
- 1 (6 oz) tomato paste
- 2 tbsp grape jelly
- 2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
- 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 2 tsp dried basil
- salt and pepper, to taste
- In a large pot, on medium heat, brown and crumble ground beef along with the onions and green pepper.
- Season with salt & pepper.
- Drain excess grease.
Put drained beef back into the pot. Add in diced tomatoes, tomato sauce and tomato paste. Give it all a good stir.
- Keeping heat on medium.
- Then add in grape jelly, Parmesan cheese, minced garlic, Italian seasoning and dried basil.
Stir then cover and allow mixture to simmer gently for at least 30 minutes. Then serve.
Recipe Video
This is a very meaty pasta sauce. If you prefer more sauce than meat, then you could scale down the beef to one pound. You can use sausage, ground turkey or ground pork. And, if you have it on hand, instead of the dried basil, the original recipe suggested using 12 leaves of fresh basil, cut into ribbons, and added in 5 minutes before serving.
Yum! Nothing beats homemade sauce!!!!! This is making me very hungry.
This looks sooooo Yummy! I have a ton of fresh tomatoes from my garden I'am going to try it them in stead of can! LOVE your site! Foound it yesterday on pinterest and now I'am addicted! Thanks JL
Looking for a yummy sauce to use with baked ziti. I'll use Italian sausage instead of ground beef. Thanks for sharing.
I never would have guessed that grape jelly was the secret ingredient! I'll have to remember this!
I made this exactly to the recipe. It was so good and I think it was even better the next day as my lunch! Thank you!
I am Italian and make this sauce nearly everyday. To make authentic Italian sauce omit the grape jelly and Basil. Use Italiano Spice rather then just plain Italian as the Italiano has all the spices you need. CLUB HOUSE makes both Spices but Italiano has the most spices. Add a small touch of ground cloves to bring the spices together. Use Ground Bay Leaves that you can find at a Italian Store. If not, then use whole dried Bay leaves (3). Once Sauce is done remove them from sauce. I add some Balsamic Vinegar to mine but it is optional.
I was skeptical about the jelly but honestly it really added to the sauce. I tasted it before and after. This is now my favorite sauce recipe and I can say that it freezes really well!
Grape Jelly!!! Totally gonna have to try it.
Love it – thank you!
I used my own homemade grape jelly… Great addition to the sauce…
The jelly addition sounds good. 🙂
This was delicious!! But after I put the sauce on top of the spaghetti noodles, water begins to puddle under the noodles. Any advice on how to avoid that from happening? I put my noodles in a collander and drained all the water off the noddles. I think it's coming from the sauce and not the noodles.
This happens to me quite often as well no matter what type of sauce I use! I hope someone can shed some light on the issue for us!
There are a couple things you can do. Basically, the water is the condensation from the steam coming off the hot pasta. Drain pasta well in a colander and toss a few times. Then put it back in the empty pot you just cooked it in on the stove. The remaining heat from the pot should help remove any excess water that is still hanging onto the noodles. Take a cup of the sauce and stir that in with the noodles, then serve as usual. Hopefully that helps!
Your Homemade Spaghetti Sauce recipe was so good. I would never have thought to use grape jelly. I usually use plain liquid stevia but next time I make your ground beef recipe – I will try some grape stevia. I loved the flavor!
When using dried spices, roll it between your palms. This helps to release the flavor. This was so good!
How do you think this would be if made meatless?
Loved it! I left out the bell pepper and used red pepper flakes instead. Mmm! The entire family loved it. One batch makes enough to feed 4 people for 2 meals. I ended up just freezing what was left so I’ll have it for next time we want spaghetti.