My favorite smell in the world is my mom's big batch spaghetti sauce without meat. I know - right away I must tell you there is no meat in this sauce. I just want the vegetarians of the world to know this sauce has no meat. And I love that this sauce isn't enhanced by ground beef or Italian sausage. It's pure tomato sauce bliss. She made it every few months when we were growing up. Every Wednesday night, and I mean every Wednesday night, was Prince spaghetti night at our house.
This Big Batch Spaghetti Sauce Was My Childhood Favorite
The smell of the garlic starting from the beginning of the process drove me crazy. I do love my garlic. Even as a child I couldn't get enough garlic and I was a picky eater so it surprises me when I think back on it.
There's only a handful of ingredients to this amazing sauce and the reason it tastes so damn good is because it simmers for 5-6 hours. That is the secret. As a result, the sauce is a deep tomato color and the flavor is to.die.for. I've never had another sauce like it. Pick a day that you'll be home all day. This sauce needs to be continuously stirred throughout the cooking process - about every 15 minutes.
Big Batch Spaghetti Sauce (and all the things you can use it for)
On my website, there are a bunch of recipes I use this incredible sauce for, including: insanely delicious meatballs (with pasta or on subs!), stuffed chicken pepperoni pizza bake, crispy chicken parmesan, eggplant towers w/cheesy ricotta blend, three-cheese stuffed chicken with sausage, and let us not forget my crowd-pleasing spaghetti lasagna. This sauce is just fantastic and I hope you give it a try! You have permission to take it slow. Just start with spaghetti night with fresh grated parmesan cheese on top of a mountain of pasta... and maybe a little garlic bread on the side. 🙂
Big Batch Spaghetti Sauce Freeze Well
If you are making this sauce, you've got to be ready to store the sauce after it's finished cooking and cools down. Here are some tips to the cooling down and packaging process:
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- You're using a huge stock pot for this, so remember the sauce will take time to cool down after it's been cooking 5-6 hours.
- I will sometimes get another large pot and carefully ladle the sauce into the second pot so it will cool a little faster.
- For containers, 32-ounce soup containers work well here, and I try to save take-out containers for this and use some that I purchased as well.
- Typically, it works well to have a couple of other containers that hold a larger quantity in case I'm having a group for dinner or making my spaghetti lasagna.
- Once the sauce is cooled, ladle the sauce into your various containers, screw and snap those lids on tight and put in your freezer where it will last for months.
Thank Your Mom's & Dad's for All Their Great Recipes
So here's to my mom! And all the mom's and dad's of the world who have magical recipes that make your stomach growl and mouth water just thinking of them. I think for so many of us, this is where we learned about how incredible food can be. We learned this at home from our families and all the foods we were introduced to from a very young age. And all the recipes that stayed with us since the beginning of our time.
Our lives can get hectic and it's always a bonus to have this sauce in the freezer for an easy spaghetti night. Gather your loved ones together for a delicious home-cooked meal and conversation. Share your days and your lives with each other. Sitting around a table with family and friends is an important part of the human experience. This is where we laugh, tell stories and simply exist. Put those cell phones and devices away and appreciate human connection. I always feel better when I make time for this ritual. I hope you do too.
If you're new to cooking, no worries. All my recipes include written instructions and step-by-step videos to guide you through the recipe. I'll be right there with you the whole way!
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Big Batch, Slow Cooked Spaghetti Sauce
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 hours
- Total Time: 5 hours 10 minutes
- Yield: 2 ¼ - 2 ½ gallons 1x
Description
This crazy delicious spaghetti sauce is a recipe courtesy of my mom. You will never make another sauce again. My mom always made big batches because we would freeze it all and take it out as needed for spaghetti nights!
Ingredients
- 7 28-ounce cans of Kitchen Ready Ground Tomatoes (I use Pastene's)
- 7 6-ounce cans of tomato paste (can be regular or garlic & herb)
- 1 whole head of garlic (or about 9-10 cloves) peeled and finely diced
- 2 cups of Greek olive oil, divided
- 1 ½ cans of water (using the ground tomato cans)
- 1 tablespoon dried basil
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon salt
- pinch of pepper
- 2 tablespoons of sugar
***NOTE: The yield for this is almost 2 ½ GALLONS. Make sure you have a large stock pot to cook this in.
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Instructions
- Peel and finely dice 9-10 cloves of garlic. I use a mini food processor for this, but if you don’t have that a knife is fine.
- Open all the cans of ground tomatoes and tomato paste.
- Add a cup of olive oil to a large stock pot and heat on low to medium.
- Once oil is heated, add the finely diced garlic and stir for a minute or two until it’s fragrant.
- Add all the cans of tomato paste – scrape those cans good! Mix very well until the garlic, oil and tomato paste are well blended.
- Add all the cans of kitchen ready ground tomatoes and stir to combine after each can has been added.
- Using the large cans add 1 ½ cans of water to the sauce and stir until well combined.
- Add dried oregano, basil, sugar, salt, pepper and stir until well blended.
- Let simmer on low to medium heat until it starts to bubble up on the top. This should happen after 15-20 minutes. You basically want to bring it to a high simmer but make sure you stir and scrape the bottom of the pot so nothing gets stuck there and burns.
- Then turn your heat to low and let the sauce simmer on low, with lid slightly ajar, for 5-6 hours. You should stir this every 15-20 minutes. You must scrape the bottom of the pot when stirring to make sure no sauce is sticking there. You don’t want the sauce to burn.
- After a couple of hours, add the rest of the olive oil and stir. My mom’s tip for this is: you know you’ve added enough olive oil when the oil starts to pool at the top of the pot.
- Once the sauce is finished, turn off the heat and let it start to cool for an hour or more. To speed up cooling, carefully ladle some of the sauce into another large pot - this is optional.
- Get your containers ready and start ladling the sauce from the pot to your containers. Then let the containers sit out to cool as long as you can before putting the lids on and storing in your refrigerator overnight.
- The next day, put your containers in the freezer.
Notes
- I cannot stress the importance enough to make sure you read the labels carefully when purchasing your ingredients. Even when I *think* I have found the Pastene's Kitchen Ready Ground Tomatoes - I still read the can slowly and carefully. The cans I use are often right next to the cans that have "chucky style" in a tiny circle on the label. NO. Not chunky style! I have accidentally loaded these cans in my grocery cart more times than I should admit.
- You can use plain tomato paste for the recipe OR the kind with garlic and herbs.
Deb
I've been meaning to writer sooner. I made this whole batch twice already. My whole family loves it - it's the best sauce we ever had. We're addicted! Definitely recommend this. Love having all the containers in the freezer makes it so easy. Excellent video instruction. Thank your mom too!
Stacey
Deb - my Gosh, thank you so much and my mom was so happy when I told her about your comment! Keep cooking! And let me know if you make anything else!
Eric
This has been my mom's and my standard for years. Nice to see it on a site!
Stacey
So glad to hear that Eric! This is the sauce I grew up on and I love it. I'm due to make a new batch right now as a matter of fact. I love making chicken parm the day I make the sauce. YUM!
Brian
Can you use crushed tomatoes instead of kitchen ready? I e checked several stores and cannot find any. Thanks
Stacey
Hi Brian - You can use "Ground Peeled" or "Crushed Peeled." The Crushed will be slightly chunkier. If it's too chunky for you, you could always mash them a bit with a potato masher. Hope this helps and good luck making it!! Let me know how it turn out.
Chris
Any idea of about how many servings or people this would feed? We are doing a church dinner and wish to feed @150 people.
Stacey
Hi Chris - I have never cooked for 150 before, but I did a little searching and found this https://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/63710/what-pot-size-for-150-servings-of-sauce#:~:text=If%20you%20assume%201%2F2,ounces%2F32%20%3D%2025%20quarts.
They lay out two scenarios: one with calculating 1/2 cup of sauce per person and another with 2/3 cup of sauce per person. I think the 2/3 cup is more likely. Some will take more some will take less. There are so many other factors as well: Will someone be serving guests the sauce? Are people serving themselves? Is it a spaghetti dinner with nothing else? Side dishes? Meatballs? etc... With their calculation that would mean you need 25 quarts. My recipe makes about 2 1/2 gallons total so you would need two batches of my sauce and I would (as a safety net) make a third pot with a 1/2 batch in it or just do a full third pot. Worst thing that could happen is you have extra sauce which you can freeze easily. 🙂
Hope this helps and good luck!!
Amanda Christensen
I'm literally making this recipe on my stove top right, lol- I'm surprised by the simplicity which is awesome, so far, so good ;). But i am curious why fresh basil and oregano wouldn't be used? Thoughts?
Stacey
Hi Amanda - thanks for stopping by! So happy to hear you're making my mom's sauce. I am due to make a batch myself! With the fresh herbs my answer will not be helpful. I've only ever made the sauce with the dried herbs. And since it's so delicious and such a large quantity, I never wanted to risk changing the flavor and (possibly) not liking it as much. I do love my fresh herbs and use them a lot. Just not for this one. 🙂
Cindy B
I am making this for the first time today. We had a Huge tomato crop from the gardens this year, so I have been trying out all kinds of sauces. Because I have other things going on i did tranfer it over to my slow cooker with the lid ajar for the long cookdown time. Stacey, this smells terrific! I am very excited. Thank you for sharing.
Stacey
Cindy!! Love this - hope you enjoy it on top of a mountain of pasta. Love the slow cooker idea too.