Homemade Spaghetti Sauce Recipe - Fast, Easy, Delicious (2024)

This homemade spaghetti sauce is so fresh and full of spices, garlic, red wine, and tomatoes! It’s vegan friendly and perfect over noodles, chicken parm, etc!

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. My guiltiest pleasure is pasta and spaghetti sauce. Not the homemade kind, I mean the 99 cents store bought red sauce with any kind of noodles. Sometimes, Trevor and I will be out at happy hour on a Friday or Saturday with the fullest intentions of staying for dinner, when I lean over and say… “Can we just go to the grocery store and have pasta and red sauce for dinner?”. To which Trevor says “of course” (I love him) and then we hop on over to the store,grab pasta, spaghetti sauce, and maybe a loaf of bread,and head home. Trevor likes to add in spicy sausage to the sauce, but I’m a purist and keep it simple with just the noodles and sauce.

I’m a little embarrassed, because it’s so simple and easy, and I have a food blog for pete’s sake! Enough is enough! Am I right? Say goodbye to jarred spaghetti sauce and hellllooooo to my homemade spaghetti sauce. Did I mention that it’s vegan friendly, too? 🙂

I’ve always loved pasta and spaghetti sauce. Growing up, my mom would make spaghetti and meat sauce alllll the time. It’s simple, it’s quick, and none of the kids ever complained about it. Although, at one point, I refused the red sauce and would only eat the noodles. Trevor used to do this too!

When Trevor and I got together, it didn’t take long for us to realize that this is where we were different. I was and am a lover of spaghettisauce, while Trevor was a lover of all things alfredo.I wanted angel hair or spaghetti noodles, and he wanted penne. We’re so different. 😉 The more time we spent together, I learned to love penne and alfredo and Trevor learned to love my simple noodles and spaghetti sauce.

Now with this homemade spaghetti sauce, I think I’ve finally brought him to the dark side, and funnily enough, while I was typing this and Trevor and I were taste testing this sauce, Trevor said “Babe, this is really good and you know how I am about red sauce.” Success! DEFINITELY won him over 😉

Start by chopping some onion, mincing some garlic, and measuring out your spices. You’ll need dried basil, fennel seeds (optional, but adds a really interesting flavor), Italian seasoning, crushed red pepper flakes – just a touch, salt, and black pepper. Set these aside.

Heat a large stock pot over medium heat and then add in olive oil. Then saute your chopped onion for about 4 minutes. Add in your minced garlic and spices and saute for 30 seconds.

Add in tomato paste and break it up. Once it’s fully incorporated into the onions, garlic, and spices, add in canned peeled and crushed tomatoes, canned tomato sauce, red wine, and white sugar. Give it a quick stir, cover, and simmer for about an hour and a half. You’ll need to lower the heat from medium to low.

Why cook it so long, you ask? This gives the sauce a chance to really grow and developflavor. It also gives the wine a chance to cook out. Simmering wine for an hour and a half in a sauce leaves behind 20% of the alcohol. We’re using1/2 cup of red wine, so this means that .8 oz of wine will be left in the whole spaghetti sauce recipe (about 6 servings worth). Just wanted to give you guys a heads up if youwere concerned about serving this to your kids, although there is just a bit of a kick from the red pepper flakes, black pepper, and garlic, so this might best serve adults anyway!

After the 90 minutes of simmering, the sauce is done! I’d go ahead and give it a taste, to see if you need to re-season, then serve it up with some pasta and you’re good to go!

This homemade spaghetti sauce is incrediblyyummy, tastes so fresh, and has such depth of flavor from the garlic, spices, tomatoes, and red wine. I love the addition of sugar to contrast the acidity of the tomatoes, too. This sauce is well balanced and is so versatile! Keep it simple and pour it over noodles, serve it up with chicken parmesan, or bake it into your favorite lasagna! This is a great options for vegans and vegetarians, too! The possibilitiesare endless and I know you won’t be disappointed!

– Jennifer

Spaghettisauce or alfredo? Show me the yummy!