Who doesn’t love homemade spaghetti sauce? When you think of spaghetti sauce, your mind probably travels to your own cupboard, where it is likely that a jar or two of canned spaghetti sauce is waiting for your next pasta night. But homemade spaghetti sauce can be a lot more filling, and much more delicious. While it is true that there are some quality jar sauces out there, and they are quite convenient, there’s just something to be said about homemade spaghetti sauce, with its rich aroma emanating from your kitchen.
Nothing is better on fresh pasta than homemade spaghetti sauce. You do not have to be a gourmet chef in order to make fabulous, mouth-watering spaghetti sauce at home. In fact, it might be said that making homemade spaghetti sauce is quite simple and straightforward. All you need is a little effort and a few key ingredients to whip up a batch of spaghetti sauce that rivals the same sauce that your grandma used to make. One thing is for sure; homemade spaghetti sauce is better than sauce from a jar, hands-down, any time.
History of Spaghetti Sauce
Long before folks could just walk into the supermarket and choose from hundreds of different spaghetti sauces, homemade spaghetti sauce was the norm. The earliest mention of the word spaghetti sauce appears in a cookbook from the late 1600s by Italian cook Antonio Latini, although it is widely believed that the Aztecs made the first tomato sauce.
It is worth mentioning that it is thought that the adventurer Marco Polo brought spaghetti to Venice after his travels to China, where it is thought that spaghetti originated. Spaghetti went on to become a huge part of Italian cuisine.
Using Creativity for Homemade Spaghetti Sauce
With just a basic homemade spaghetti sauce, any cook can become creative and end up with a version of her own sauce. Whether you choose to add mushrooms, more spices, or ground pork to your sauce, there is the potential to create something that your family will love and that becomes your ‘secret’ recipe to be handed down from generation-to-generation. Homemade spaghetti sauce can come in handy for more than just spaghetti, however. You can use your own personal spaghetti sauce recipe as a pasta sauce for lasagna, stuffed peppers, ravioli, pizza, and more. You can also use it as a base for stews and soups.
Ingredients for our Homemade Spaghetti Sauce
While there are many recipes for making homemade spaghetti sauce, most of them have the same concept. Fresh onion and garlic, olive oil, butter, ground beef, pepper, basil, oregano, tomatoes, and tomato sauce are blended together in just the right proportion to create a tasty, sensational sauce that becomes a “taste sensation” among those who are lucky enough to have you cooking for them! The key to a truly tasty homemade spaghetti sauce may lie in the freshness of your ingredients. Be sure to use fresh onions and garlic, and to buy fresh (not frozen) ground beef for your recipe. For a leaner homemade spaghetti sauce, you can go for ground chuck instead of ground beef. Either way, freshness is important to making your sauce taste awesome. A basic homemade spaghetti sauce recipe usually looks something like the one below, but it can vary.
For our purposes, the recipe below will be used:
• 1 LB ground beef or ground chuck
• 1 medium onion
• 15 oz can tomato sauce
• 20 oz can diced tomatoes
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp self-rising flour
• cracked pepper
• dried basil
• dried oregano
Step-by-Step Instructions for the Traditional Tomato-Based Homemade Spaghetti Sauce
The following steps will help you to create a homemade spaghetti sauce that will have everyone asking for more:
• Over medium heat, add olive oil and butter to a 3-quart fry pan.
• Position the ground beef or ground chuck, onions, and garlic in the pan. This allows the onion and garlic to sauté while the meat fries. Cook the meat until it is brown and well-done. Add flour to mixture and blend.
• Drain the meat/onion/garlic mixture onto paper towels. The paper towels work to soak up any excess fat that has been released from the meat during the cooking process.
• Return the meat/onion/garlic mixture to the pan. Add pepper and spices to the mixture. Stir in the diced tomatoes and tomato sauce. Bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to low, and cover the pan with a lid. Allow to simmer for one hour. Stir the homemade spaghetti sauce every fifteen minutes to keep it from sticking to the bottom of your pan or burning.
Healthy Homemade Spaghetti Sauce
Pasta is beloved by nearly everyone and for the cook – perhaps no dish is more versatile. A good homemade spaghetti sauce can truly transform the meal. With an infusion of different textures and flavors, the spaghetti sauce serves as a backdrop for various ingredients, like lean meats and veggies, or even seafood and tofu. To make a healthy homemade spaghetti sauce that is not over laden with sugar or sodium, there are some variations on the recipe above that can be made. With a few substitutions, omissions, and additions of healthy ingredients, you can make homemade spaghetti sauce that will knock the socks off of even the strictest dieter at your table. These tips will help:
• In lieu of the butter, use red wine or cooking wine. Omit the ground beef and add some olives. Serve over your favorite whole grain pasta, or over roasted or grilled fish.
• Forego meat altogether and spice things up a bit by adding mint, lemon and cilantro.
• Skip the onion and the meat and dice eggplant into your homemade spaghetti sauce instead. A few capers and green olives added to the mix and served over thin pasta, like angel hair, makes this sauce super delicious.
• Substitute lean, grilled chicken or shrimp for the ground beef and instead of tomato sauce, substitute yogurt. Toss with asparagus, red bell pepper and peas for a satisfying meal that is creamy and delicious – and super low calorie.
• Make a harvest sauce using butternut squash. Cook squash and season to taste with salt and pepper, and then puree with a food processor. Toss lightly over spaghetti and serve with grated parmesan cheese.
Nutritional Value of Homemade Spaghetti Sauce
Homemade spaghetti sauce can be a rich source of nutrients, vitamins and minerals. Depending on what you put in your homemade spaghetti sauce, it is typically low in saturated fat and cholesterol while providing an excellent source for fiber. Most homemade spaghetti sauces contain Vitamins A, B6, C, and E, magnesium, niacin, manganese, thiamin, copper and potassium. And while pasta dishes can be high-cal, homemade spaghetti sauce is typically low in calories. All tomato-based homemade spaghetti sauces contain lycopene, which is a chemical that has been shown to protect men against prostate problems, including prostate cancer, while providing both men and women with antioxidant power to fight off the damage of free radicals within the body.
So there you have it. Homemade spaghetti sauce has a “rich” (pun intended) history, is easy to make and versatile, and contains lots of “stuff” that is actually really good for us.