Family Pasta Recipe

Homemade Spaghetti Meat Sauce - One Recipe Makes Two Homemade Dinners

A family pasta recipe is perfect for your busy schedule. It gives you two dinners in one shot. Enjoy the homemade spaghetti dinner the first night and dive into a bowl of flavorful and vegetables packed soup the night after. Wait, there is more. You only need to wash the pot once between these 2 meals. Amazing, huh?

Total Time: 3 Hours 35 Minutes
Prep Time: 5 Minutes  
Active Cook Time: 30 Minutes  
Inactive Cook Time: 3 Hours  
Serving: 4-6

You may have had this spaghetti with meat sauce recipe or something similar before. But wait till you try the spaghetti sauce vegetable soup made out of the leftover...You will make it over and over again. If you still have leftover after that soup night, you are going to have a Hong Kong style dinner with the help of this sauce. Sounds too good to be true?! Keep on reading....

CHEF NOTES

My husband and his family are not big on meat balls. Therefore, when it comes to spaghetti, they always like to serve this meat sauce. Some of our relatives use ground deer meat and it comes out as delicious as this one.

It is not a typical slow cooker recipe that you cook in high heat for 4 hours or low heat for 6 hours. After so many trial and errors, I realize that it will burn the sauce.

If I serve this family pasta recipe during the week, I always cook it the night before serving. It is around the time after dinner and before going to bed.

Following the recipe below, I brown the meat on the skillet and transfer everything into a slow cooker. Cook on high heat. When the sauce bubbles around the edge in about an hour, quick stir the sauce, cover it with the lid and turn off the heat immediately. While the meat sauce is cooling down during the night, the heat continues the cooking process.

On the night of serving, I turn on the slow cooker to high heat right after coming back home from work. When I see the edge starts bubbling in about 45 minutes to an hour, I start cooking the spaghetti to get dinner ready on the table.

Before serving, take out 2 cups of meat sauce and set it aside for the next slow cooker easy dinner.

If you serve this easy slow cooker recipe during your days off or weekend, just follow the recipe below.

Can You Cook this Meat Sauce in A Cast Iron Dutch Oven?

Yes, if you are not a crock pot person, you can easily make this same recipe with the help of stove top and oven.

It’s difficult to clean up the splatters of tomato sauce on the lid. So....

1. First and foremost, line an aluminum foil on the inside of the lid which is the side facing the sauce. (Thank me later for this tip.)
2. Before turning on the oven, move the oven racks around to allow enough space for the Dutch oven going in.
3. Preheat the oven at 250F (for a longer cook time) or 300F (for a short cook time).
4. Preheat Dutch oven on stove top at high heat.
5. Add 2 tbsp of oil in the pan (depending the % lean of beef you have got. The leaner, the less oil you need)
6. Just like the original recipe to brown and cut meat into pieces.
7. Once tomato paste and sauce are in the pot and well stirred, cover it with lid.
8. Transfer the entire pot of sauce into a 300F oven for 90 minutes or 250F for 2.5-3 hours.
9. Take it out half way, stir around and add seasoning.
10. Salt and pepper to taste and serve with pasta of your preference.

The splattered spaghetti sauce is tough to clean. Look at the big difference by covering it with foil.

Recipe Ingredients and Tools

6 Quart Manual Portable Slow Cooker

6 Quart Portable & Programmable Slow Cooker

6 Quart Portable & Programmable Slow Cooker with Temperature Probe

6 Quart Enameled Cast Iron Dutch Oven with Lid

Family Pasta Recipe and Directions

Ingredients
2 Cans (32 ounces each)  Tomato Sauce
1 Can (6 ounces) Tomato Paste  (No need to struggle with your can of paste anymore. Check out this newsletter to learn the easiest way to get the paste out.)
1 ½ pounds 90% Lean Ground Beef
1 pound Spaghetti

Seasonings
½ teaspoon Sugar
¼ teaspoon Dried Oregano
Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat a big skillet at medium high heat and brown the meat.
2. Use spatula to separate the meat into pieces; about 10-15 minutes.
3. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the meat into the slow cooker. By doing so, it will separate the dripping and discard.
4. Add tomato sauce and tomato paste into the slow cooker.
5. Cook the sauce in low heat about 3 hours.
6. Add all the seasonings and adjust to taste.
7. Save 2 cups of spaghetti meat sauce and set aside for a delicious slow cooker spaghetti sauce vegetable soup recipe. Also, check out these 2 rice recipes with spaghetti sauce.
8. About 30 minutes before serving, prepare spaghetti per package instructions and serve with sauce and shredded Parmesan cheese. (I prefer Saputo Stella brand)

Serve This With: 

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