My family's secret homemade spaghetti sauce is easy to make using a few staple ingredients you may already have on hand! Perfectly thick and packed with flavor, you'll be ditching that store bought pasta sauce!
Recipe by Suzy on April 10, 2020
Prep time: PT10M
Cook time: PT25M
Total time: PT35M
Rating
4.8 stars ( reviews)
Keywords
Spaghetti Sauce, Pasta Sauce, Vegetarian Spaghetti Sauce, Homemade Pasta Sauce
Ingredients
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (I used Private Reserve Greek extra virgin olive oil)
1 medium yellow onion, grated
3 garlic cloves, finely minced
2 carrots, finely grated (use a food processor or a grater)
28 oz canned crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup water (pasta cooking water, preferred)
Kosher salt and black pepper
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tsp sweet Spanish paprika
Pinch red pepper flakes, optional
Handful fresh basil, about ½ cup packed, torn
Handful fresh parsley, about ½ cup packed, chopped
3/4 lb to 1 lb of cooked pasta of your choice
Categories
Main Course
Cuisine
Italian
Steps
In a large pan heat the extra virgin olive oil over medium heat until just shimmering. Add the onions, garlic, and finely grated carrots. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring regularly until softened.
Add the crushed tomatoes and about 1/2 cup water. Add a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Stir in oregano, paprika, crushed pepper flakes, if using. Finally, stir in the fresh basil and parsley.
Bring the sauce to a boil, then turn heat to low. Cover and let simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes. Check partway through, and if you feel the sauce is too thick, you can add a bit more water (preferably some of your pasta cooking water). When sauce is ready, throw in more fresh basil, if you like.
If serving for dinner, add cooked pasta of your choice to the sauce. Mix to combine and let the pasta cook in the sauce over low heat for about 5 minutes.
Nutitrion
Calories: 148 calories
Carbohydrates: 15.4 g
Protein: 3.1 g
Fat: 10 g
Saturated Fat: 1.4 g
Trans Fat: 0 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 268 mg
Sugar: 7.8 g
Reviews
Sara B on 2024-10-02 (5 stars): The recipe was delicious and easy! I added mushrooms to make the sauce a little thicker. I would definitely make the recipe again.
Jessica on 2025-01-20 (5 stars): This was delicious. Not too heavy, right amount of flavor and easy to make. I made with ground chicken.
Sandra on 2025-04-18 (5 stars): This sauce was very good. I’ve never made my own sauce and I’m glad I tried this one. It was very easy and tasty.
Diana on 2025-06-03 (5 stars): I used ground sirloin to use meat as guided. It didn't produce a lot of fat and I didn't need to drain before the vegetables were added. I never add the garlic at the same time as the onions because I've experienced my garlic burning too often. I added it in the last 30 seconds of the veggies cooking. For some reason, my crushed tomatoes were part diced tomatoes. Not the fault of this recipe and I've never seen that in a can of crushed tomatoes before. I even pulled the can out if the trash to see if I made a mistake, but, nope, it said crushed. Anyway, that made it less saucy than I would have liked. I also found it sweeter than expected. It must have been that I used California Sweet Paprika because I didn't have Spanish. Nevertheless, I have found the recipe I will always use when I don't feel like making meatballs. Hopefully the next can will be truly crushed. Delicious. Thank you.
Caroline Werner on 2025-06-28 (5 stars): Made this last night and the whole family including grandkids LOVED it! So easy- had all ingredients on hand.
Thank you!!!!!!
