This all purpose meat sauce goes especially well with Easy Ricotta Gnocchi. It is a super simple, lighter sauce as Italian spaghetti sauces go (which is a good thing this time of year). You can easily double it if you want your pasta to be a little more substantial. Enjoy!
Italian Meat Sauce
Author: Monica
Recipe type: Sauce
Cuisine: Italian
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4 servings
Ingredients
- ½ pound ground beef
- 1-15 ounce can diced tomatoes
- 2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
- ½ teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 basil leaves, chopped
- ⅛ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
Instructions
- Brown ground beef.
- To a blender, add diced tomatoes and garlic cloves.
- Blend until almost smooth.
- Heat olive oil in a saucepan over medium to medium high heat.
- Add tomato sauce to the hot pan and allow to boil 2-3 minutes. (do this carefully because it may splatter) Have a splatter guard or lid handy.
- Season with salt and sugar. (add red pepper flakes now too if using)
- Add ground beef and let simmer for 15-20 minutes.
- Serve over ricotta gnocchi or your favorite pasta.
- Sprinkle with chopped basil and grated parmesan if desired.
