Quick Tomato Sauce
This tomato meat sauce is a weeknight miracle dinner made in 30 min! Fast, easy, and budget-friendly using ground beef and canned tomatoes!
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 pound lean ground beef
- 1 small onion, diced
- 1 celery rib, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- ¼ cup dry red wine
- 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
- 1 (14.5-ounce) can fire roasted petite diced tomatoes
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- ¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
Equipment
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add ground beef, onion and celery, and cook until beef has browned, about 3-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the beef as it cooks; drain excess fat.
- Stir in garlic, oregano and basil until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in tomato paste.
- Stir in wine, scraping any browned bits from the bottom of the pot.
- Stir in tomatoes and sugar. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until flavors have blended, about 10-15 minutes.
- Remove from heat; stir in Parmesan and butter until melted, about 1 minute; season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Serve with desired pasta.
Notes
- Deglaze the pan. This will lift up all the flavorful browned bits (fond) from the bottom of the pan, building a rich, thick tomato sauce.
- Choose a wine you will drink. A dry red wine (cabernet sauvignon, pinot noir or merlot) is great here – it does not have to be anything fancy or overpriced. Just something you don’t mind sipping on since you will have an open bottle.
- Simmer for longer. For a thicker sauce, simmer for an additional 5-10 minutes, reducing some of the liquid and yielding a thicker consistency. Alternatively, for a thinner sauce, reduce the simmer time as needed.
- Mix it up. Use a combination of ground beef and Italian sausage, or add 1/4-1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes for a subtle kick of heat.
- Freeze as needed. Portion and freeze in individual freezer bags up to 3 months, thawing overnight in the fridge and gently reheating on the stovetop until warmed through.