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The Best Meaty Meat Sauce

The Best Meaty Meat Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place ground meat into a large pot on stovetop and turn heat to medium-high. As soon as the meat starts to cook, drop the garlic into the pot and begin stirring the meat with a spoon. Continue to stir, breaking up the meat as it cooks. Once all of the meat is cooked, carefully drain away fat and discard. Return meat to stove and continue.
  2. Sprinkle the chili flakes, herbs, salt, sugar and pepper into the pot and stir to combine. Cook for 1 minute. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for an additional minute. Stir the onion, carrots and celery into the mixture. Cover and cook for 5 minutes, stirring after 3..
  3. Add the diced and puréed tomatoes. Stir them in and cook until bubbling. Cover, reduce to simmer and cook for 20 minutes.
  4. Remove garlic cloves from sauce, finely chop and return them to the sauce. Adjust flavour with salt to taste.
  5. Use as a sauce for pasta or for a lasagna recipe.
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Gently sautéed beef flavoured with onion, carrots, celery and garlic in a rich tomato sauce…

  • clock icon
    30 MIN
  • 8 SERVINGS
The Best Meaty Meat Sauce

This really is THE BEST MEATY MEAT SAUCE, perfect with your favourite pasta, rice or to make a crowd-pleasing lasagna.

This post is the answer to a number of requests we received over the past few months. Seems lots of novice cooks (and people who just love delicious food) are on the hunt for an easy-to-make, extra-delicious meat sauce. In our humble opinion, this is it. It really is THE BEST MEATY MEAT SAUCE ever.

Although this recipe is open to interpretation, we’d like to suggest you make it exactly as written at least once. Remember, this isn’t about building unique, unusual or unexpected flavour profiles. This trusted sauce will have you serving a delicious pasta main in under 30 minutes. The added bonus – everyone will rave about it. It’s so good!

Best to put this one in your back pocket, so to speak. PIN it to a favourite dinner or pasta board and BOOKMARK this page for future reference.

Here’s how to make THE BEST MEATY MEAT SAUCE:

Ingredients for The Best Meaty Meat Sauce

INGREDIENTS

About two years back, we started including these overhead photos of the ingredients needed to make a recipe. Many of you have commented about how much you enjoy them. We think of it as a snapshot of all the deliciousness to come.

One interesting consideration for this recipe is for you to replicate the portioning and preparation of the ingredients as you see them in the photo so they’re ready to go as you start the recipe. This will simplify the process and you’ll pull the sauce together in no time.

The ground beef cooked and crumbles

THE BEEF

My one big beef with meat sauces is when a sauce is riddled with sizeable clumps of beef. I much prefer a sauce where the beef is broken down into the tiniest little bits, producing an almost smooth consistency.

The trick to this is what I refer to as a cold-pot method, partnered with the big stir. This recipe calls for the ground meat to be placed onto a cold pot, no oil or butter required. As the pot comes to temperature, the meat starts to sizzle, which is an audible cue to start stirring. Stirring the meat while it cooks in the pot prevents it from clumping and we’re left with tiny morsels of beef. Perfect.

One last point about the meat is to not miss my direction of carefully straining away the fat after the meat has cooked. This ensures a rich meat sauce without oil or grease pooling on the surface.

Chopped onion, carrots, celery and garlic for the meaty meat sauce

TRINITY

Referred to as mirepoix, an essential trinity of flavour, this sauce puts that classic mix of onion, carrots and celery to the test. Boy, are they ever good together. We call for a cup of onion and then a half cup each of carrots and celery. They unite to give the sauce not only flavour but texture and colour too. 

Tomato paste, diced tomatoes and tomato sauce

TRI-TOMATO 

Three different types of processed tomatoes are used to finish this favourite meat sauce. The tomato paste is used to seal the juices of the cooked beef. The diced tomatoes add small chunks of natural tomato sweetness. The puréed tomato blends everything into a light sauce. 

The finished homemade meat sauce simmering in the pot

Of course you can use fresh tomatoes instead of the canned diced tomatoes, and if you have homemade tomato sauce, even better. The canned products are preferred up in cottage country and having a few of each makes this recipe a quick fix whenever a delicious meal is needed.

A bowl of pasta topped with the meat sauce

ENJOY

No surprise THE BEST MEATY MEAT SAUCE is most often enjoyed ladled over a pot of noodles. I like serving it with short noodles like penne, fusilli and rotini because the sauce fills these shapes with delicious little bits of the homemade sauce. 

The Best Meaty Meat Sauce

This sauce is also wonderful when used to make a homemade lasagna. Regardless of what you serve it on, it goes really well with our famous CAESAR SALAD and this ROASTED GARLIC CHEESE BREAD.

Hope you enjoy THE BEST MEATY MEAT SAUCE! So easy and tasty too!

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The Best Meaty Meat Sauce

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The Best Meaty Meat Sauce

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Ingredients

  • 2 pounds ground beef
  • 3 whole cloves of garlic
  • 1 teaspoon chili flakes
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • ½ teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • ½ teaspoon granulated sugar
  • ½ teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 cup white onion, finely diced
  • ½ cup celery, finely diced
  • ½ cup carrot, finely diced
  • 1 can (156 ml) tomato paste
  • 1 can (786 ml) diced tomatoes
  • 1 bottle (680 ml) strained or puréed tomatoes
  • kosher salt to taste

Directions

  1. Place ground meat into a large pot on stovetop and turn heat to medium-high. As soon as the meat starts to cook, drop the garlic into the pot and begin stirring the meat with a spoon. Continue to stir, breaking up the meat as it cooks. Once all of the meat is cooked, carefully drain away fat and discard. Return meat to stove and continue.
  2. Sprinkle the chili flakes, herbs, salt, sugar and pepper into the pot and stir to combine. Cook for 1 minute. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for an additional minute. Stir the onion, carrots and celery into the mixture. Cover and cook for 5 minutes, stirring after 3..
  3. Add the diced and puréed tomatoes. Stir them in and cook until bubbling. Cover, reduce to simmer and cook for 20 minutes.
  4. Remove garlic cloves from sauce, finely chop and return them to the sauce. Adjust flavour with salt to taste.
  5. Use as a sauce for pasta or for a lasagna recipe.

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