Easy Spaghetti And Meat Sauce Recipe (Made with Ground Beef & Store Bought Sauce)

Made with ground beef and sweet Italian sausage, which makes the meat sauce pop and store-bought sauce! Seasoned to perfection and filled with onions, peppers, tomatoes, and mushrooms.

Looking for a delicious easy spaghetti and meat sauce recipe? A spaghetti and meat sauce recipe guaranteed to satisfy your taste buds? Well, look no further because this is THE ONE!!!

This here is soul food-style spaghetti and meat sauce folks. It’s the bomb.com and makes for a perfect mid-week dinner.  So check it out and tell me what you think in the comments below!!!

An Italian classic

Spaghetti and meat sauce/balls is considered an Italian dish but it’s one of American’s favorite things to eat, especially for dinner. I don’t know too many people who don’t like Spaghetti. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say it’s their favorite dish!

So I had to do a video on how to make some fiya Spaghetti which I uploaded to my Youtube channel over 7 years ago. So if you’re a visual learner, check it out!

Easy Spaghetti And Meat Sauce Video

My first successful dish

Spaghetti was one of the first dishes I mastered as a teen, which is when I really started to develop a love for cooking and realized I was pretty good at it. 2003 at 16 was when I really started to impress my mom and grandmom with my dishes.

I came from a family of really good cooks, my grandfather Milton Taylor worked as a Chef for Lord & Taylor’s for many years and almost everyone on my father’s side can cook their butts off. So I guess you can say I had a natural talent for it???

But I sorta got into cooking out of necessity…  I’m not so sure I would have fell in love with it if it wasn’t for my grandma Viola being so lazy! Hahaha! I moved in with my grandma during the early 2000s, around 2001 or so.

And my grandmom was sort of a homebody. She was a pretty solid cook but just didn’t like to unless she had to. Her husband Carlton McCloud was pretty much the cook in the house and he also did all of the food shopping.

But the problem is he was rarely ever home so who was left to cook for MS LAZY… your guess was right, Philly boy Jay! He would stack the cabinets with a bunch of box and can foods, filled the refrigerator with juices, sodas, and every condiment known to man.

And the freezer and deep freezer in the basement, were never NOT FULL! So there was more than enough food in the house, AT ALL TIMES, for me to cook for my grandma and I did just that.  

I remember fried fish being one of the first things my family trusted me to cook in 2001 at age 14 and I ruined it. What was I thinking seasoning fish with sugar? SMH!!! My aunt Pam was so mad at me for WASTING 2 lbs of Whiting she bought.

She would always fry fish and bake mac n cheese every Friday night after work. The fam was pissed yall… it took about 2 years for them to trust me enough to cook something for them again.

By this time, I had watched my grandma and McCloud cook a thousand times, was more mature, and had a better sense of how certain foods was supposed to be prepared and cooked. 

So they finally gave me another chance and I nailed it when I made a big pot of spaghetti and yall IN MY OPINION, it’s better than this Spaghetti recipe here because I added cheese to it.

I don’t GO IN, if yall know what I mean when creating recipes, because when doing so you have to cook in a way that appeases the masses. You can’t cook like you’re cooking for yourself. Plus im a better freestyle cook…

That’s where you just season things using your eyes and experiences and not using measuring cups and spoons! Lol! Anyway, I say all this to say Spaghetti and meat sauce will always hold a special place in my heart.

It’s not only one of the first dishes I mastered but it’s what made me fall in love with cooking and convinced my family that I was good enough to cook when they didn’t feel like it.

I later went onto make a whole Thanksgiving dinner by myself for my family in 2006 and they absolutely loved. It was official at age 19, that Philly boy Jay knew how to cook and was a good cook. 

Common Questions about Spaghetti

• Do you break the spaghetti in half? I like to break it just once but it’s completely optional. Traditionally, you wouldn’t! Some love long never-ending strings of Spaghetti quirling around the fork. But breaking the spaghetti once in half makes for more spaghetti and, quite frankly, easy to cook, serve, and eat.  
• Do you add salt to your pasta water? Yes, salt adds flavor to the spaghetti so I season the water with about 2 teaspoon or so of salt before it comes to a boil. How much I add depends on how much I’m making.
• Do you add oil? Yes, because spaghetti, like linguine, fettuccine, and other stringy long pasta, tends to stick. So to ensure it doesn’t, it’s good to add a little oil to the pasta water. Sticking spaghetti is the worst and can’t be undone.
• What does Al Dente mean? Spaghetti is done when it’s al dente, which in Italian means “to the tooth”! That means not so done to where it’s soggy but tender with a bite, which is how most people like their pasta. The last thing you want is white, bloated, soggy spaghetti! YUCK! So I usually cook my spaghetti over high heat for 10-12 mins, then remove it from the pot and strain immediately.  
• Do you rinse the spaghetti once it’s done? With salad I do but you want the spaghetti to retain its starch to help the sauce stick so dont rinse it. Just make sure to remove it from the hot water as soon as it’s al dente to prevent overcooking. 
• Do you season your spaghetti once it’s done? Personally, I do! I sprinkle it with garlic powder or minced garlic, and add maybe a teaspoon or so of butter. Then I beautify it with a little parsley or parsley flakes. Sometimes I’ll sprinkle in a little seasoning salt just to season it a bit and give the overall dish more flavor. A little seasoning dont hurt, just dont overdo it. I do all this before topping it with the meat sauce. 

Ingredients you’ll need:

Here are all the ingredients we’ll be using for this recipe. So get your shopping list together and make sure you pick up all these ingredients… feel free to leave off whatever you dont like and add whatever you think you might want to use to spice up the recipe.

• Spaghetti: Use your favorite spaghetti… and I know I’m always telling you guys how much I love thin spaghetti but it doesn’t have to be thin.
• Ground beef: Use a good, fatty, flavorful ground beef with an 80 lean/20 fat ratio.
• Sweet Italian Sausage: Sweet Italian sausage is packed with so much flavor and is just a big difference maker for meat sauce. I always use half the amount of ground beef that I use. It is optional and it is made of pork so you can omit it and just replace it with more ground beef if you like.
• Yellow Onions: Onions are a must when creating a good meat sauce. We’ll be using standard yellow onions.
• Garlic: Garlic, just like onions, is very necessary for a good meat sauce.
• Green & Red Bell Peppers: It’s not meat sauce without peppers. You can just use green bell peppers; red are optional.
• Diced tomatoes: Not necessary, but if you like a chunky sauce like I do, you’ll use it.
• Mushroom Prego Sauce and tomato paste: I love mushrooms! It adds to the deliciousness of this spaghetti and meat sauce so I use mushroom sauce but this is optional. You can use traditional sauce if you like. Tomato paste thickens the sauce and gives the meat sauce a rich dark color.
• Seasonings: Seasoning salt, Creole Seasoning, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder, Italian Seasoning, Sugar, and Black Pepper are the best combination of seasonings for ground beef, especially for meat sauce. Trust me on that!

The sugar

“SUGAR.. SUGAR?” Yes, SUGAR! PROBLEM? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been asked why I add sugar to my sauce. It’s annoying because the answer is obvious if you’ve been cooking for more than a year. To REDUCE THE ACIDITY!

Now Italians will frown at the idea of adding sugar to tomato sauce… but I don’t care because Im not trying to make my spaghetti like Italians, no offense to them and how they make it. But this is soul food style spaghetti and meat sauce baby. 

Some people love the bitterness of tomato sauce, I don’t and neither do many others. I always add sugar to my tomato sauce, I don’t care what I’m making. Pizza, chicken Parm, Lasagna, Stuffed Bell Peppers, Baked Ziti, even tomato soup!

The only instance where I may not add it is when I’m making ravioli’s. But yea I’m just not of fan of the bitterness. So that’s that! I know this has been up for debate in the culinary world of cooking for many years.

But at the end of the day, you have to be happy with what’s going in your mouth. So do you! You can add sugar or omit it. Some people like a lot, I dont! Just enough to taste a hint of sweetness and to neutralize the acidity. Ok onto the how to make this delicious meat sauce.

How to make meat sauce

1. Place a skillet over medium heat and cook the ground beef and sausage until it’s no longer pink.
   Chop the meat up as it cooks.
   
   
   
   
2. Drain the fat if any is leftover in the pan, which there typically is a nice amount of.
   
   
3. Chop up the onions and peppers into small pieces and add them to the meat along with the minced garlic!
   
   
4. Add all the seasonings (except Tony’s and parsley), stir well, and continue cooking for an additional 5 minutes.
5. Add in the sauce, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, and the sugar, then stir well.
   
   
6. Cover with a lid, leaving a small crack to the side, and let it simmer for an additional 10 minutes.
   
   
   
   
7. Fill a pot with water, add a little salt and oil, then place it over high heat.
8. Once it comes to a boil, add the spaghetti, and cook until al dente.
   
   
9. Drain the water once done, then add the butter, Tony’s, garlic, and parsley.
   
   
10. Combine the spaghetti and meat sauce if desired, or serve them separately.

Tips for best results

• Use two spatulas: Use 2 spatulas to break up the ground beef and Italian sausage meat as it cooks. You want it to be as fine as possible.

Spaghetti And Meat Sauce Variations:

• Cheddar cheese: When I’m just making this for myself, I like to add cheddar cheese to the sauce, and OMG is all I can say… If you’re a lover of cheese like I am and love the combination of cheese and sauce, you’d probably love this addition.
• Fried pork bacon bits: The first time I tried spaghetti with fried bacon in it was during my vacation in Venice, Italy. It was delicious and the next time I made spaghetti I made sure to add it. I really enjoyed it and so did the friend I had over who requested spaghetti. Lol!
• Fresh mushrooms: As I mentioned earlier, mushrooms don’t have to be an alternative they can be just something you add to make it a part of the recipe. I do sometimes when I’m in the mood.
• Shrimp: Shrimp for me is my favorite choice if I want to spice my spaghetti up. Try it it’s super good and for those of you who can’t have it, damn damn damn… I feel sorry for you, reeeeal sorry!
• Jalapeno’s: Chop up some jalapenos and add them to the spaghetti! Make it a Mexican-style spaghetti dish!

What to serve with spaghetti and meat sauce:

• Fried chicken: Spaghetti to me is best eaten as a side dish on the side of some crispy fried chicken, OMG! It gives you chicken parmesan vibes. Chicken goes with everything, so you know this combo works.
• Fried fish: Now this might surprise some of my fellow Northerners, but this fried fish/spaghetti and meat sauce combo is very popular down south. I tried it once and really enjoyed it, so I see why.
• Fried pork chops: Ok so I guess it’s fair to say Spaghetti and meat sauce just taste great and go well with fried food because that seems to be a common theme here so far right? McCloud always ate it with fried pork chops.
• Seared steak: This has become one of my favorite combos. And when I decide to make spaghetti as a side dish to steak, I’d usually just make the spaghetti with sauce without meat.
• Tossed salad: Ok so you’re not thinking about meat? Well, toss salad is almost to spaghetti what gravy is to rice. It’s a common side to spaghetti and meat sauce.
• Spinach: Spinach is personally my favorite vegetable to eat with spaghetti, asparagus is a good option as well. Spinach with a splash of vinegar with spaghetti and meat sauce hits different. Omg!

Storage and reheating

• How to store spaghetti and meat sauce? Place the spaghetti and meat sauce in a glass Tupperware bowl or a similar container. Ensure it’s tightly sealed with a lid or cover it with aluminum foil or plastic wrap, then place it in the refrigerator.
• Can you freeze it? Yes! If you plan to save it for a week or longer, place it in a Ziploc bag and ensure it’s tightly sealed. Then store it in the freezer and it’ll stay fresh for months. I’d recommend saving the meat sauce, not the pasta.
• How to reheat spaghetti and meat sauce: It’s best to reheat it in a microwave-proof bowl in the microwave for about 3 minutes, especially if you’ve combined the spaghetti and meat sauce. This way the spaghetti won’t become too soggy.
• How to reheat spaghetti and meat sauce in a pot: Just place it over medium heat, and let it simmer for 8-10 minutes, or until hot. Stir periodically.
• How to reheat spaghetti and meat sauce separately: If you didn’t combine the spaghetti with the meat sauce, you should reheat the meat sauce in a pot over low heat until hot and reheat the spaghetti in a microwave for a minute.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Can I make homemade tomato sauce? Yes! If you want to be Mr. or Ms. Fancy Nancy, go right ahead. Lol! As long as you have a good “sauce from scratch” recipe. I know how to make homemade sauce, but I’m lazy, so I rarely do.

Cookware & utensils you’ll need:

Make sure you have all of these cooking utensils in the kitchen. You’ll need them for this spaghetti and meat sauce recipe.

• Large skillet: You need this to fry the meat and saute the veggies.
• Knife: To chop the vegetables.
• 2 Spatulas: Use 2 spatulas to break up the meat.
• Large pot: You need a large size pot to boil the spaghetti in.
• Colander: A colander to strain the spaghetti once it’s done.
• Tongs: Tongs to transfer and or plate the spaghetti.
• Big Spoon: A big spoon to stir and scoop the meat sauce.

Alright yall that’ll be it for now. The full recipe with all the measurements and detailed instructions can be printed below. Im glad after all these years I was able to put numbers to this dish and post it for you guys.

I hope yall love it as much as before. If you do enjoy this dish please give me a 5 star rating and leave a comment below. Make sure you share this recipe with your friends and family, and subscribe to receive notifications whenever I post new recipes.

For updates, news, and more info on anything Philly Jay Cooking, follow me on social media. I can be found on the following platforms: Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

Enjoy, later!
PBJ~

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