Spaghetti Recipe with Ground Beef

Old Fashioned Homemade Spaghetti Meat Sauce - A Foundation of Multiple Delicious Dinners Ahead

Spaghetti recipe with ground beef is perfect for your busy schedule. It sets you up for 3 awesome and delicious dinners in the next few days.

Total Time: 3 Hours 35 Minutes
Prep Time: 5 Minutes  
Active Cook Time: 30 Minutes  
Inactive Cook Time: 3 Hours  
Serving: 4-6

I have been making this spaghetti meat sauce many times that I started to make it in a different way to accommodate some of our tight schedule needs.  As time goes by, I realized that using different pots and pans to make it would make it more accommodating for different reasons.  Thinking of many families which have more children, tighter schedule and more running around, I believe these cooking methods would help.  You will learn about using 1) a Dutch oven finishing off in the oven and 2) a slow cooker.

Before diving in further, I just want to set up some expectations. This recipe makes your busy life very easy because it will set you up for 3 great dinners: 1) The traditional spaghetti dinner, 2) the spaghetti sauce vegetables soup and 3) the Hong Kong style spaghetti sauce and rice.

CHEF NOTES

Some of our relatives are hunters and they use ground venison and it comes out as delicious as ground beef.

I started out using slow cooker to make this sauce.  After a while, I realized that if I stay at home for the entire day, I could use the Dutch oven on the stove top and finish it off in the oven.  Then, I will only need to clean one pot.  But if I am out and about most of the day, finishing the sauce with a slow cooker makes more sense.  The point is that you don't have to use a certain pot or method to make it.  Use whatever way that gives you the most convenience to make this spaghetti recipe with ground beef.

My family is small. But we are all big eaters.  We still have plenty of leftover every time.  You may have a bigger family and there may be just enough to feed every mouth.  If you want to increase the volume of the sauce, add 1 to 1.5 pounds of ground beef with an additional can of tomato sauce.  The cook time will need more.  If so, starting with increasing the cook time 30 minutes more.  This gives you an opportunity to check it out before determining how long you need to finish the entire cooking process.

Spaghetti Recipe with Ground Beef Recipe and Instructions

Ingredients
2 Cans (32 ounces each) Tomato Sauce (Add half a can of water for each can to rinse out the sauce leftover inside. And transfer the mixture into the pot.)
1 Can (6 ounces) Tomato Paste (No need to struggle with your can of paste anymore. Check out this newsletter to learn the easiest way to get the paste out.)
2-2.5 pounds 90% Lean Ground Beef (or whatever is on sales even 80% lean is still ok for this recipe.)
1 pound Spaghetti

Seasonings
3 teaspoon Sugar
1/2 teaspoon Dried Oregano
Salt and Pepper to taste

The Dutch Oven & Oven Way

Pros and Cons

Yes, if you are not a crock pot person, you can easily make this same recipe with the help of the stove top and the oven.  The advantage of using the Dutch oven is that you will only clean this one pot.   And the oven is easy enough to ramp up or knock down the temperature, especially if you are in a rush.  The slow cooker will not give you this ability to control the temperature easily.

Since this spaghetti recipe with ground beef is quite a big amount we are making, a 6-quart Dutch oven (promotion) is needed.  As a result, it is heavy lifting taking it in and out of the oven.   If you are not strong enough to do this transfer, make sure you will have someone at home to help you to do so.   Otherwise, use the slow cooker.

Get Ahead of the Game

There were times that we barely had enough time to eat, not to mention having time to cook dinner. So, here are the steps to bring a "long" process to a less stressful one. Start it around the time after dinner and before going to bed. Then, you will only need to warm up the sauce for dinner the night after.

Follow the recipe to brown the meat and stir in tomato paste and sauce.  When the mixture comes to a boil on the stove top, cover it with lid and turn the heat to low and continue to cook for an hour.  Then, turn off the heat.  The remaining heat will continue to cook the sauce.  Remember not to open the lid. 

When you come back home the next day, you can easily turn on the heat to warm up the sauce while cooking the spaghetti in another pot to get ready for dinner.  If you do these steps, you can skip the oven.

The splattered spaghetti sauce is tough to clean. Look at the big difference by covering it with foil.

Instructions

1. First and foremost, line an aluminum foil on the inside of the lid which is the side facing the sauce. (It’s difficult to clean up the splatters of tomato sauce on the lid.  So, this step is super important and save you from the frustration of cleanup. Thank me later for this tip.)
2. Before turning on the oven, move the oven racks around to allow enough space for the Dutch oven going in.
3. Preheat the oven at 250F (for a longer cook time) or 300F (for a short cook time).
4. Preheat Dutch oven on stove top at high heat.
5. Add 1 tbsp of oil in the pan (depending the % lean of beef you have got.  The fatter, the less oil you need)
6. Add ground beef into the preheated Dutch oven and brown.  Use a spatula to cut the meat into pieces.
7. Transfer the browned meat into a strainer (promotion) to separate out the extra grease.  Discard the grease and put the meat back into the Dutch oven.  Stir in tomato paste until it covers the meat pieces well.
8. Stir in the tomato sauce.  Make sure use about half a can of water to rinse out all the sauce leftover inside each can and transfer the mixture into the meat mixture.
9. Cover with lid and turn down to medium heat to bring the sauce to low boil.
10. Transfer the entire pot of sauce into a 300F oven for 2 hours or 250F for 3-3.5 hours.
11. Take it out half way, stir around and add seasoning.  Transfer the pot of sauce back into the oven and cook it for the second half of the time.
12. 20 minutes before dinner, heat up a pot of water and cook spaghetti.
13. Save 2 cups of spaghetti meat sauce and set aside for a delicious slow cooker spaghetti sauce vegetable soup recipe.
14. Salt and pepper to taste and enjoy immediately with spaghetti.

The Slow Cooker Way

Pros and Cons

Using a slow cooker (promotion) to make this spaghetti recipe with ground beef means you are going to wash 2 pots.  But there are some advantages with the crock pot.  The ground beef needs to be browned first no matter what.  In this case, you can use a non-stick skillet for easier cleanup.  As mentioned earlier, the Dutch oven version means weight lifting.  So, a lighter skillet makes it much easier.  Safety is always the number one priority in the kitchen. 

Plenty of home cooks like to let the slow cooker to do the work while they are out and about throughout the day.  So, using a crock pot gives you this opportunity, especially for families with very busy and tight schedule.

Get Ahead of the Game

Start the cooking process like mentioned above which is the night before dinner before bed time.

Following the spaghetti recipe with ground beef below, I brown the meat on the skillet and transfer everything into a slow cooker.  Cook on high heat for about an hour.  When the sauce bubbles around the edge, quick stir the sauce, cover it with the lid and turn off the heat immediately.  While the meat sauce is cooling down during the night, the remaining heat continues the cooking process.

(If possible, when you wake up in the morning, turn on the slow cooker to high heat while you are getting around for the day.   Just make sure to turn it off before leaving the house or turn down the heat to low if you are the kind of person like the slow cooking working for you while you are out and about.  But if it is too much, skip this step.)

As soon as you get back home from work, turn on the slow cooker to high heat.  When you see the edge starts bubbling in about 45 minutes to an hour, start cooking the spaghetti to get dinner ready on the table.  While the pasta is cooking, it gives more cooking time of the sauce.

Instructions

1. Preheat a big skillet at high heat, add oil and brown the meat.
2. Use spatula to cut the meat into pieces and brown.
3. Coat slow cooker insert with no-stick cooking spray for easier cleanup later. (optional)
4. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the meat into the slow cooker. By doing so, it will separate the dripping and discard it.
5. Stir in tomato sauce and tomato paste into the slow cooker.
6. Cook the sauce in low heat about 3-4 hours to desired doneness.
7. Add all the seasonings and adjust to taste.
8. About 30 minutes before serving, prepare spaghetti per package instructions and serve with sauce and shredded Parmesan cheese.
9. Save 2 cups of spaghetti meat sauce and set aside for a delicious slow cooker spaghetti sauce vegetable soup recipe.

Final Note

Before serving, take out 2 cups of meat sauce and set it aside for making the soup the night after and you are going to use the same Dutch oven or crock pot.  No cleaning of the pot is needed until the next dinner is done.   After the spaghetti dinner, if there is still plenty of leftover, reserve another 2 cups for your third dinner to make a Hong Kong style rice dinner.  2 cups may sound too little. But the sauce thickened up significantly after the cooking. It's plenty enough.

Spaghetti Recipe with Ground Beef Steps with Photos

Use a foil cover the lid of the Dutch oven if that's the pot you use for this recipe.

Foil covered lid of the Dutch oven

Add a little bit of oil and ground beef into the preheated Dutch oven.

Break meat up into smaller pieces and brown.

Browned meat with grease.

Transfer browned meat and grease into a strainer to separate the grease and discard. You can use slotted spoon to transfer the meat into a slow cooker and finish the rest of the steps from there.

Transfer meat back into the pot and stir in tomato paste.

Meat is well covered with tomato paste.

Stir in tomato sauce.

Cover the pot of sauce and bring it to low boil before transferring into the oven. You can finish this off in the slow cooker.

Stir in seasonings half way through. Transfer it back into the oven to finish the second half of the cook time.

Glad to have the foil, huh?

Take out 2 cups of sauce for the soup dinner.

Enjoy spaghetti with homemade meat sauce!

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Last Updated: 1/24/2025