When I was little, my favorite meal was my Grandma’s spaghetti and meatballs. This is her recipe, but I can never make it taste just like hers. I think she had a special spoon she stirred it with. Cooking the sauce on the stove and simmering it for hours makes it taste better than cooking it in the crockpot, but I didn’t have hours the other day. It was still yummy in the crockpot. It only took a few minutes to put the sauce together and turn the pot on high. I had already made the meatballs, so they just had to be added to the pot to heat with the sauce.
Gather your ingredients:
1 onion, chopped
about 4 cloves of garlic, minced
4 small cans tomato paste
4 cans water
2 tall cans (15 oz) tomato sauce
garlic powder
basil
oregano
thyme
bay leaves
salt and pepper
sugar
parmesan cheese
Saute the onion and garlic in a bit of olive oil. Combine all the ingredients in the crockpot or large cooking pot on the stove. I didn’t measure any of the spices, but used about 2 tsp of each, less for the garlic powder. I use 2 bay leaves. Salt and pepper are to taste. I used about 2 tsp of sugar and about 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese. That is all just a guess though, because I really just eye-balled it and then went by taste. Let it cook several hours or as long as you have time for.
I didn’t get a picture of the spaghetti with sauce on a plate. We were all ready to dive in and I forgot about taking a picture.
{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
It is really hard to remember to take pics with every step when you intend to blog about it. I did it once with my pepper pasta dish and thought it was very time consuming. I have a new respect for your blogging abilities.
I love slow simmering sauce for spaghettz!
Don’t all grandmas have that special spoon?? I think mine did!! Nothing’s better than making your own sauce. Looks yummy and simple.
I’ve *almost* got my potato salad to be just like grandmas. I just can’t remember how she always cut her potatoes so perfect – not too big, not too small.
I’m going to try this since I always have tomato sauce in the pantry.
Ooh! A crockpot spagetti sauce! What a good idea!
Mmm…I would have been ready to dive in too!
Looks like an awesome sauce. I love that it is done in the crockpot!!
I have to admit it… I’ve never tried to make homemade spaghetti sauce! But I think I’ll have to finally try it with this recipe!
Dropped by from SITS. That looks great. I really need to do that. Too often I take the lazy way out and buy a jar:)
Your sauce looks wonderful! There’s something about homemade spaghetti sauce that makes you feel everything is great! I like that you used the crockpot too!
I’m going to try this one.
Sounds delicious, and you just can’t beat a good grandma recipe.
It’s delicious! Let me say Congratulations! I’m italian, so I love spaghetti sauce!
You mentioned meatballs, do you have a recipe for those?
Courtney, I’m afraid I’m not a very good meatball maker. I do make them, but they just aren’t great. If I finally figure out the secret to wonderful meatballs, I’ll let you know.
If you use petite diced tomatoes, and ditch the tomato sauce, you keep the cost about the same, the amount of food about the same, but it will be slightly more textured.
Courtney, I have a good meatball recipe here and tons of step by step photos of the whole Spaghetti Sauce and meatballs process. This recipe also walks you through braciole as well. Very yummy stuff! I have a lot of my Italian grandmothers recipes on there as well. Have fun! happy cooking and happy times and share the LOVE! Ciao, Anthony
http://www.spaghettisauceandmeatballs.com
Italian Recipes Jsut Liek Grandma Used To Make!
Sauce like Grandma’s… one thing that makes a huge difference in tomato sauce for me is the brand of canned tomato you use. I buy off brand all the time when I don’t have a coupon… except for tomato and sauce. Have you tried using a different brand of tomatoes to see if you can get the taste you are looking for? I have yet to find the perfect sauce for me… I’m adding this to the stack of sauce recipes I need to try out.
Dani, That’s a good idea. I’ll have to ask my mom to see if she remembers what brand Grandma used.
I’m wanting to do this today! What size crock pot do you recommend? Just found your site last night.
Britney, I think this would easily fit in a 4 qt crockpot. Mine is a 6 qt., but this recipe doesn’t come close to filling it up.
This was GREAT! I used it with a pasta bar dinner party I had one nite- had leftover sauce and used it in homemade lasagna! GREAT recipe- using it again!