Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

The secret to the best homemade spaghetti sauce is keeping things simple: Tomatoes simmered with a few pantry staples and ground meat is all you need. Besides being tossed with pasta or layered into a lasagna, the hardworking tomato sauce can easily transform just about any protein or veggie into a satisfying dinner in no time. Pour it over cooked chicken breasts with rounds of fresh mozzarella and add a showering of Parmesan and chopped basil, and suddenly dinner becomes something worth celebrating. Or pair it with spaghetti and meatballs for a classic Italian American dinner that never disappoints.

This recipe is designed specifically to be made ahead of time, primed for stashing in your fridge or freezer. And while many marinara sauces require a laundry list of ingredients and a long cook time to thicken, this version keeps things simple and comes together in less than an hour. Bolstered by tomato paste, the pasta sauce strikes the perfect balance between hearty and saucy, perfectly clinging to cooked noodles without weighing them down. While this recipe calls for ground pork to bulk it up and create a hearty meat sauce, you can swap in plant-based meat or omit it entirely for a vegetarian version that tastes just as good.

Read more: From-Scratch Pasta Sauce Is Good for More Than Just Pasta