Meat Sauce Recipe

A plate of spaghetti with meat sauce on top of it.

This meat sauce recipe is rich, cozy, and designed to bring everyone to the table. It’s perfect with homemade meatballs, slow-cooked pork, or your favorite pasta.

Course dinner, Entree

Cuisine Family, Italian, Sunday Sauce

Diet Low Lactose

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 3

Total Time 3

Servings servings

Calories 93kcal

Author Jessy Freimann

Equipment

Ingredients

112 ounces Tomato puree four 28 ounce cans
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 large onion whole with skin removed and poked all over with the tip of your knife
8 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 ½ cups cooking grease from frying meatballs and pork- this is the liquid golf
1 bunch fresh basil, or 2 Tablespoons dried basil

Instructions

Put the tomato puree into a big sauce pot over medium-high heat. Rinse the cans out with water by flushing water between each can, adding about 1 ½ cans of water mixed with the puree that was in the cans to the pot. Stir well to mix and add more water if you prefer (based on your preference of sauce thickness).
Bring the sauce to a boil. Taste the sauce and you'll notice it will taste acidic and a bit tart.
Add 1 level teaspoon of baking soda into the sauce and stir it. You'll notice it starts to foam up at the top of the sauce. Scrape the foam off the top and dispose of it. Reduce the heat to medium.
When the sauce stops boiling and settles down, taste it again. If it's still too tart or acidic add a tiny bit more baking soda and repeat the process until the flavor is less acidic. Remember, less is more with the baking soda.
Add the whole onion, minced garlic, meat and liquid gold and stir to combine.Then stir in the fresh basil.
Reduce the heat to medium low, cover and let it simmer for a couple of hours, stirring periodically.
When it's all cooked the grease will come to the top- it's done! Serve immediately topped with plenty of Romano cheese or cool and store covered in the fridge or freezer.

Video

Notes

Don’t add sugar. It sweetens the sauce instead of balancing it. Baking soda balances acidity without changing the flavor.
Start small with baking soda. Too much will leave your sauce bitter. You can always add more
Taste before adjusting the baking soda. Always let the sauce settle before adding more baking soda. Small adjustments make a big difference.
Never add salt. There’s already salt in the cooking fat and in the Romano cheese you'll top it with later. You should also be heavily salting your pasta cooking water.
Don’t rush the simmer. Low and slow is what gives this sauce its depth and balance.
Save the liquid gold! Leftover cooking fat from the meat is great for future batches. I usually use half of the liquid gold for a big pot of sauce and freeze the rest in smaller portions to add to my marinara later.
Ingredients to prep ahead- Meatballs and pork can be browned a day ahead and refrigerated along with the liquid gold.
Leftovers and storage- Store in airtight containers in the fridge for up to 4 days or freeze for longer storage.

Nutrition