Copycat Olive Garden Meat Sauce
May 27, 2020
Olive Garden is one of my favorite restaurants and I love to recreate theirdishes at home and this recipe for their Meat Sauce is spot on! Its rich,thick and meaty perfection!
While Im typically an alfredo girl theres something about a big bowl of meaty spaghetti sauce and youll be shocked at how easy this was to make! Next time though Im adding mushrooms.
Single Serving Ground Beef Recipes
If you have any ground beef left over from this meat sauce recipe, you might like to consider using it in any of these ground beef recipes:
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How To Make Ragu According To Three Real Italian Nonnas
Long before ragù was a ubiquitous brand of spaghetti sauce in a jar, it was and is the basis for untold volumes of Italian goodness, from tagliatelle al ragù to lasagna to gnocchi to supplì, deep-fried rice balls stuffed with meat sauce whose mere existence is perhaps proof that a higher power actually exists.
In Italy, a good pasta with ragù is the go-to meal in home kitchens and trattorias. It is as essential as an asthmatics inhaler or a reformed smokers vape pen: there are always the makings for it close at hand, a pot of it already bubbling on the stove on Sunday morning, or a mason jar of it being pulled from the freezer.
It gets sent back to college with students going home after a long weekend, and it accompanies families in the bag of groceries toted on a beach vacation. No ragù? No party.
Even if youve long-ago abandoned the jars of store-bought sauce in favor of a DIY concoction, chances are your attempts at ragù are a pathetic stab in the heart of Italian tradition and an offense to the sensibilities of nonnas everywhere, who would find your pasta sauce at best insipid, at worst a cruel corruption of all that is pure and good about ragù.
Our health-conscious ways are mostly whats standing between us and a good ragù, but, as all Italian mothers and grandmothers know, a little fat and cholesterol never killed anyone. So we asked three nonnas, all of whom have been making ragù for decades, to show us how its done.
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Top Tips For Making The Very Best Beef Ragu
- Dont rush the soffritto or you wont get the real depth of flavour.
- Make sure to use 50/50 ground beef and pork.
- Use high-quality passata as cheaper brands can be very acidic.
- Use a red wine thats good enough to drink and never use cooking wine.
- Try to use the highest quality beef stockor broth you can find if not homemade. This sauce is super simple so high-quality ingredients are important.
- If serving the traditional way with tagliatelle pasta then boil the pasta then add it straight into the ragu and toss to coat before serving.
Best Jar Sauce To Buy For The Easiest Meat Sauce
The sauce brands I love and use regularly in this meat sauce recipe are: Raos, Cucina Antica, or Stonewall Kitchens Montebello line of sauces.
Tip: look out for added sugar and additives that dont need to be in your spaghetti sauce!
I usually toss in some veggies I have in the fridge for this recipe, too. It definitely adds not only a nutrition boost but a flavor boost too! With that said, I also make it stripped down with no added veggies and its wonderful as-is. Its one of those really easy delicious recipes that uses roughly 6 ingredients and comes together in 20 minutes.
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What Is The Best Fettuccine Alfredo Sauce In A Jar
- Best Overall: Little Italy in the Bronx Alfredo Sauce.
- Best Budget: Classico Creamy Alfredo Pasta Sauce.
- Best Gluten-Free: Newmans Own Alfredo Pasta Sauce.
- Best Vegan: Primal Kitchen No Dairy Alfredo Sauce.
- Best Classic: RAGÚ Classic Alfredo Sauce.
- Best for Kids: Prego Homestyle Alfredo Sauce.
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The Best Meat Sauce: A Special Family Recipe
This amazing meat sauce recipe hails from my father-in-laws kitchen and is everyones favorite. Its thick, hearty, and has phenomenal flavor thanks to a combination of beef, veal, and pork.
I think every family has a bona fide people pleaser. My grandma was ours.
She always wanted to please everyone, even if it meant creating much more work for herself. Case in point: Sunday dinner. She often made different versions of the same dish in order to appease everyones taste preferences. Lasagna was one such dish, and her sauce was the other. To accommodate those who didnt like chunks of anything in sauce, she typically made a simple marinara I always loved her sauce, even though I have a huge soft spot for a super chunky meat sauce.
Fast forward to my courtship with my husband. At some point in those early months, I had the chance to taste his dads meat sauce after it had spent a Sunday afternoon simmering away on the stove. I fell madly in love with that sauce.
Ive been enjoying it for years, and the second time that I made it, my husband walked into the kitchen as I was just getting it to a simmer and said that it smelled like his parents house on a Sunday.
Success.
If you prefer a meatless sauce, you can simply omit the meat and make the sauce as directed below. Ive done that multiple times when Ive made baked ziti, and its just as fabulous.
I urge you to run, not walk, into the kitchen and get a pot of this started.
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How To Make A Good Spaghetti Sauce With Ragu
Sharing is caring!
Flavorful homemade ragu sauce smothered over al dente spaghetti noodles is whats for dinner. Serve with a side of crunchy garlic bread makes this recipe a favorite among the young and the young at heart.
Reading: how to make a good spaghetti sauce with ragu
Spaghetti is a classic dinner in many households and my house is no different. At least once a week my kids will ask for spaghetti. If you ask my son what his favorite dinner is, hands down spaghetti is the winner.
Heres another noodle dinner recipe.
You Dont Boil Enough Water
The water requirements for cooking pasta ma seem excessive, but dont ignore them. Theres a reason youre supposed to have extra water in the past. When the pasta is added to the boiling water, it can lower the temperature of the water, which will stall cooking and may add minutes to your total time or impact your pastas texture. Make sure you have enough water in your pot so that adding pasta doesnt drastically drop the waters temperature, Underbrink says.
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How To Store Meat Sauce
Homemade meat sauce will keep about a week in the refrigerator if it is covered. Just reheat on the stove and add a little extra garlic to refresh the flavors!
To freeze meat sauce, ladle it into zippered bags and lay them flat. Once frozen, stack them upright to save space in the freezer! The homemade sauce should last about 3 months in the freezer!
What To Serve With Spaghetti Meat Sauce
This is technically a condiment, but once you boil some water and make some spaghetti, you almost have a full blown meal. Whip up a side item or two to make this a well rounded meal. I am listing a few below that I think would add very little hands on time and would compliment spaghetti with meat sauce by adding in some vegetables.
- Easy Arugula Salad: I come back to this one time and again because arugula is such a great way to get another serving of vegetables in your diet, and this salad is to die for with only a few ingredients.
- Crispy Brussels Sprouts: Like the salad above, this one only has a few ingredients. Its very little hands on time, and the end result is a side dish your family will love.
- Roasted Cauliflower Recipe: Im adding this because it is our go to side on pasta night. All of my kids eat it up, and one of them even asks for seconds!
As always, if you make this spaghetti meat sauce recipe or any of my others, leave me a comment! Id love to hear what you think.
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This Vessel Can Do Multiple Methods
A dutch oven is the optimal large pot for making a sauce. It provides plenty of space and high sides to execute multiple cooking methods. You can sear the surface of the meat to develop aromas and flavors. And the capacity is perfect for adding in the other liquid products. Finally, everything simmers in one pot to marry all of the ingredients together.
Briefly Simmer The Sauce
Simmering the sauce for several hours is not uncommon. Why is this? The steady cooking draws out the water and fat-soluble flavor compounds, making them more noticeable and infusing them together. Also, the natural acids in the tomatoes help tenderize the meat. Over time, the moisture evaporates, concentrating the flavors while creating a very thick and hearty consistency.
I find you can reduce the process to about 30 minutes. Since the meat is broken down into smaller pieces, it provides more surface area to extract flavor in less time. Although, I have noticed that the longer the sauce simmers, the more complex it becomes. I like to give it an hour or longer on those kicked-back weekends when time isnt an issue. Adjust with a little water or beef stock to thin the consistency if it gets a bit too dry.
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How To Defrost Meat Sauce
There are a few ways to defrost meat sauce. Once it is fully thawed, reheat over medium heat just until hot and simmering.
- Quick-thaw method: Place the sealed bag of meat sauce in a bowl under cold water until thawed.
- Slow-thaw method: Place the frozen meat sauce in the refrigerator overnight.
- For a camping trip: place packaged frozen meat sauce in a cooler with ice and let it thaw as in a refrigerator overnight.
Our Favorite Sources For Meat
For years, I’ve been sourcing our meat from Butcher Box. We love this curated meat delivery service, which provides grass-finished beef, heritage breed pork, organic chicken, and more from small farms direct to the customer. You can learn more in my extensive Butcher Box review and unboxing.
More recently, we’ve also become big fans of Cooks Venture for chicken.
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Possible Bolognese Recipe Variations:
As I mentioned above, there are endless ways that people have adapted and customized the classic bolognese recipe over the years. So feel free to get creative with yours, if you would like! For example, you could also
- Add more herbs: Some fresh basil, sage or oregano would also be absolutely delicious simmered in this sauce or sprinkled on top.
- Make it spicy: Feel free to also add in more crushed red pepper flakes if you would like the sauce to have more of a kick.
- Make it gluten-free: This bolognese sauce is already naturally gluten-free. But feel free to serve it with your favorite variety of gluten-free pasta to make GF pasta bolognese.
- Use heavy cream: As I mentioned above, feel free to also swap heavy cream or half and half in place of the milk.
- Use homemade pasta: And of course, if you really want to go all out with this Bolognese sauce, you can make a batch of homemade pasta to serve with it.
How To Make Bolognese Sauce
This Bolognese sauce is the family recipe of one of our readers and is used in our Lasagna Bolognese recipe. The recipe includes ground beef, pork, and Italian sausage, which is essentially seasoned ground pork and pork fat.
To start, you sweat the soffritto of minced onions, celery, and carrots with pancetta in butter. Then you add the ground meat to brown it, and sprinkle with ground clove, cinnamon, and pepper.
Add tomatoes, then milk, and simmer for at least 2 hours on low heat. Keep it partially covered, but add water if too much liquid simmers away.
Of course, you can skip the long slow cooking if you want, but the flavor definitely improves with the longer cooking.
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What Type Of Meat Can You Use In Ragu Sauce
Read more: how to make a pasta sauce with cream cheese | Family Cuisine
My go to choice of meat to use in ragu sauce is ground beef. If you want a healthier version you can use ground turkey. Ill often swap out the ground turkey and whats even better my kids cant tell the difference. Like a little spice? Try Italian sausage.
Why Make Homemade Meat Sauce
- Simple ingredients. This delicious sauce uses fresh and easy-to-find ingredients.
- Healthier than store-bought. Our Meat Sauce recipe is rich and tasty but omits the added salt and sugar found in many canned and jarred sauces.
- Slow cooker friendly. You can simmer this on the stove, or put it in your slow cooker on low for a hot, delicious sauce waiting for dinnertime.
- Easy to freeze. Try making our spaghetti meat sauce in larger batches to keep in your freezer for a quick and easy meal.
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How To Make Lasagna Meat Sauce
The most important part of this whole things is her sauce. Its rich with flavour and texture.
- Our sauce is made with a mix of ground beef and pork. This is OPTIONAL. If you dont like pork you can definitely use beef to replace it, but the pork does add a traditional lasagna flavour to the sauce.
- Most sauces use crushed tomatoes as a base, however we love mixing in a bottle of Passata to add richness.
- Using tomato paste results in a thick and rich sauce. Dont skip this ingredient! We love using one with garlic and herbs, but plain is also fine.
Other Meat Sauce Variations
With this super easy meat sauce recipe, you never need to purchase another jarred sauce. This basic recipe is easily customizable, consider adding…
- Chopped green peppers, zucchini, and/or carrots: Cook them with the onions until they soften.
- Mushrooms: Add these along with the onions.
- Seasonings: You can add other seasonings like red pepper flakes for a spicier taste or parsley.
- Add a touch of honey: Honey or sugar cuts the acidity of the sauce. Taste the sauce after it has cooked, if you feel it tastes too acidic, add a tiny bit of sweetener. I prefer using honey and I recommend using only about ¼ to ½ of a teaspoon of honey, if using.
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Can I Omit The Wine
Technically, yes, but I highly recommend adding it to the homemade spaghetti sauce since it adds so much flavor. Remember: the alcohol cooks out of the sauce and is only a flavoring.
However, if youre out of wine or are opposed to using it, you can add 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar instead to add a little acid and umami.
Do I Have To Simmer The Sauce For So Long
The sauce develops flavor as it simmers. It needs to be simmered for a minimum of 1 hour to give you the most amazing lasagna, but you can simmer it up to 4 hours for maximum flavor results. Its worth every second and doesnt require much effort at all. If you dont want to leave it simmering on the stove, you can always transfer it all to a slow cooker and simmer it in there on high for 4 hours or low for 6 to 8 hours.
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Serving Suggestions For Spaghetti Meat Sauce
We love this spaghetti meat sauce over some cooked spaghetti noodles. You can use any noodle you want! Top each serving with parmesan cheese.
Serve some garlic bread on the side and a side salad. I like to buy the bagged organic Caesar salad mix from Costco, but any grocery store sells it.
You can also serve it over some zucchini noodles for a low carb option.
Feel free to use this pasta sauce in any recipe that calls for it, like this easy ziti pasta bake. This is a great thing to do with leftovers!
Spaghetti Sauce Marinara Sauce And Pizza Sauce Whats The Difference
The main difference between the 3 of these sauces is the spices used and the cooking method.
Spaghetti/Pasta sauce is a slow simmer sauce that has a few herbs like basil involved. This is usually a thicker sauce, and you usually add meats and peppers to it. This would never go over a pizza.
The marinara sauce is usually a quick-cooking sauce that only cooks for an hour or less. has a sweeter, deeper flavor. This can be used over pasta or even over pizza.
Pizza sauce is an uncooked tomato sauce. Pizza sauce is typically made with tomato pasta or thicker tomato sauce. It uses different spices from spaghetti sauce, featuring oregano, Italian seasoning, garlic salt, onion powder, and sugar.
Other Italian Recipes
If you love this homemade spaghetti sauce recipe, you will love some of our other Italian recipes:
- Heat the olive oil in a 5+ qt. pot over medium heat, and add the onion.
- Saute for 10 minutes or so, stirring often and being careful not to burn it.
- Add the chopped or pressed garlic.
- Heat for another one to two minutes, making sure not to burn the garlic, then add all the tomatoes, salt, black pepper, basil, and sugar. Stirring often, bring to a low boil.
- Reduce heat to low and simmer for 2-3 hours stirring often.
- For the first half of the simmer time, do so with the pot uncovered, then cover.
- Add the cheese, stir in and simmer for an additional 5 minutes or so.
- This will make the equivalent of 4-5 jars of sauce, and the cost is probably about half .
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