Name: Meaty spaghetti sauce with pork and beef
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 2 min
Total time: 47 min
Yield: 8
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 20 small fresh tomatoes (or 6 beefsteak tomatoes); 2 tablespoons of olive oil, divided; 1 onion, chopped; 3 large cloves of garlic, finely diced; 8 large white mushrooms, chopped; 1 pound of lean ground beef; 1/2 pound of lean pork ( can also use 4 bone in pork chops); 2 tablespoons fresh rosemary; 2 tablespoons of fresh oregano; 2 tablespoons of fresh basil; 2 teaspoons of fresh thyme; 1 teaspoon sea salt; cracked black pepper to taste; 1/2 cup of good red wine (optional); 2 tablespoons of tomato paste; 16 ounces of spaghetti; Parmesan cheese to top (optional)

This homemade pasta sauce is made with both pork and beef for a meaty spaghetti sauce that your family will ask for again and again. It is the ultimate topping for recipe including pasta.

This is a recipe that has been a favorite with my family for one reason – it tastes amazing!

I have been making this spaghetti sauce for decades. I keep tweaking it to make it better, but I’ve settled on this version because it is my favorite. It is rich and thick and chunky and tastes amazing.

The original homemade spaghetti sauce came from a time in my teen years when I babysat for a local family. I often had to serve the meals and one of their favorites was spaghetti bolognese.

Spaghetti recipes are some of my favorite go to meals when I want to give my family a dose of comfort food. When the gardens are producing tomatoes like they are right now, a great homemade spaghetti sauce with pork recipe is the perfect use for them.

The secret to this homemade pasta sauce

Every time I cook this pork spaghetti sauce, I get rave reviews and people want the recipe. The secret is the addition of the diced pork and the roasted tomato sauce. They add a level of flavor that is very special.

I also add chopped mushrooms to the sauce. When you combine the pork, ground beef and mushrooms with the pasta sauce, they make a very thick spaghetti sauce that is super chunky.

The sauce takes some time to make. This is not a dish that you can do after you get home from work (that is what bottled spaghetti sauces are for.) But if you have a few spare hours, do give this a try. Most of the cooking time is from simmering in the pot.

The thick spaghetti sauce freezes well and the basic sauce can be served with any pasta including lasagne. I like to make a big batch of this and keep some in the freezer for those nights when I DO come home from work but still want a nice meal.

This meaty spaghetti sauce uses both pork and beef for an Italian night that will be long remembered. It's thick and chunky and made with fresh garden tomatoes, roasted in the oven. Get the recipe on The Gardening Cook.🍅🍝🍅🧆🍅 Click To Tweet

How to make this meaty spaghetti sauce

Gather your ingredients. The sauce has mushrooms, onions and garlic as a base. I also used fresh herbs from my garden. Rosemary, thyme, oregano and basil add a lovely Italian flavor that is amazing.

Start by roasting your tomatoes in the oven. It takes just 15 minutes at 450°F. It is so worth the extra time to do this. Roasting fresh tomatoes brings out their natural sweetness and gives the pork pasta sauce a wonderful base of flavor.

I used about 20 fresh patio tomatoes. I’ve also made the sauce with 6 beefsteak tomatoes. Both work well.

Just cut the tomatoes in half and put them cut side down on a silicone baking mat. After they have roasted, you can use a pair of tongs to easily remove the skins.

While the tomatoes are roasting, you can cook the mushrooms, onions and garlic until they are soft and tender.

Next some the diced herbs. Fresh is best. If you don’t grow them, they are available in the produce aisle of most grocery stores now. I just chopped a handful of each type. ( I rarely measure unless I am baking but it was about 2 tablespoons each).

Cook the herbs with the mushroom mixture and then add this mixture and the roasted, skinned tomatoes to a big cooking pot.

Now it’s time to add the meat. I used a pound of lower fat ground beef and a half a pound of boneless lean pork. You can also use four pork chops on the bone and cut the meat for use in the meaty spaghetti sauce.

I cooked both in the same pan that the onions and mushrooms were cooked in and cut the pork before I added it.

Cook until the beef and pork and no longer pink.

Add this mixture to the big pot and let it simmer for about 2 hours. I added two tablespoons of tomato paste along with the beef and pork. This helps to make the spaghetti sauce with pork even thicker.

Season well with sea salt and cracked black pepper.

If you like to add wine to a spaghetti sauce, you can add a 1/4 cup of a good red wine at this stage, too. It is optional but adds more flavor if you use it.

Now the sauce cooks on the stove over low heat for a few hours to develop all those lovely fresh flavors. It will thicken as it cooks down. The beauty of this sauce is that the main time that you have to prepare the sauce is only about a half hour.

The sauce pot simmers for the rest of the time, but you can get on with your day, knowing this lovely aroma will be in the kitchen beckoning you. Just give it a stir now and then, but it basically cooks itself.

You’ll want to give it two hours, but longer is fine too. This sauce actually gets better the longer you cook it.

When it’s done, you’ll have the beginnings of your Italian pasta night. Just boil your favorite pasta, Use those fresh herbs add some herbed garlic bread and your dinner is ready!

Serve the cooked pasta with the sauce on top. A sprinkle of some grated Parmesan cheese also adds extra flavor.

The sauce can be frozen for later, so make a big batch to have some for another day.

Pin this post for making this meaty spaghetti sauce with pork and beef

Would you like a reminder of this post for making this thick homemade pasta sauce? Just pin this image to one of your cooking boards on Pinterest so that you can easily find it later.

Admin note: this post for making homemade pasta sauce with pork first appeared on the blog in December of 2013. I have updated the post to add all new photos, a printable recipe card with nutritional information and a video for you to enjoy.

Yield: 8 servings