“What are your favorite foods?” When I was young, and an adult asked me this question, my default answer was, “Too many!” We were spoiled for choices in Japan, even when I was growing up in the ’80s. However, if anyone asked, “What do you like to eat at a Western-style restaurant?” I had a favorite dish to proclaim right away: Japanese-style Spaghetti Meat Sauce.
I’ve eaten it so many times during my childhood that I would even describe myself as a spaghetti meat sauce connoisseur. I bet you might say the same, as ground meat cooked in tomato sauce and served over pasta has an appeal to kids, regardless of where you’re growing up.
This Spaghetti Meat Sauce is the recipe I now cook for my kids, who, like all kids, absolutely love the dish. I prepare it the Japanese way by adding more vegetables to the mixture, making it a great way for kids to eat more veggies. Let me show you how!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It makes for an easy yet extremely satisfying meal for the family!
- Deeply flavorful as it is filled with Vegetables and Mushrooms. If you want your kids to eat more veggies and nutritious food, this recipe checks all the marks.
- The sauce stores well in the freezer, making it an ideal dish for big-batch cooking. It will be very handy during your busy months!
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Ground meat — I highly recommend using a mixture of ground beef and ground pork for the best texture.
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Aromatics: Garlic and bay leaf
- Vegetables: Onion, carrot, celery, and button mushrooms
- Red wine – A splash of red wine adds a robust taste and warm richness to the sauce. The alcohol evaporates after the food is cooked; however, if you don’t consume alcohol, I have a substitution tip for you below.
- Whole tomato in a can
- Vegetable stock/broth
- Seasonings: Unsalted butter, salt, and freshly ground black pepper
- For servings: Parsley (fresh or dried) and Parmigiano-Reggiano (or Parmesan cheese)
How to Cook Spaghetti Meat Sauce
- In a large skillet, heat the oil and cook the aromatics until fragrant. Add the onion, carrot, and chopped celery, and sauté until golden brown.
- Add the ground meat and break it into pieces. Pour in the red wine and let it simmer until the alcohol has evaporated.
- Add a can of whole tomatoes and break them up into small pieces. Then, add the vegetable stock/broth and sliced button mushrooms.
- Cook the sauce on medium-low heat until the liquid is almost evaporated, about 1 hour.
- Toward the end of cooking, boil a pot of water and cook the spaghetti (or pasta of your choice).
- Add unsalted butter to the mixture and season the sauce with salt and pepper.
- Serve the meat sauce over the spaghetti and top with parsley and grated cheese. Enjoy!
Japanese Meat Sauce vs American Meat Sauce
- We use soffritto (known as mirepoix in French), which is a fancy way of describing a mixture of vegetables sautéed with olive oil or butter until tender and golden. The standard vegetables are finely chopped onions, carrots, and celery. They add a refreshing texture and umami-rich flavor to the meat sauce.
- We commonly use two types of meat for the sauce (both with about 20% fat). Blending in pork makes the sauce more tender. You can find packages of ground beef and pork combined (see a picture below) in Japanese supermarkets. It’s very convenient (a little pricey, but the quality of the meat is excellent).
Substitution Tips
- Meat mixture. You can do all ground beef, Italian sausage, ground turkey or lamb, if that’s what you have.
- Use tomato paste and chicken/beef broth to replace red wine. The wine flavor adds complexity and a variety of tastes (acidity, sweetness, etc) to the dish that’s difficult to substitute, but if you don’t consume alcohol, you can use these instead.
How to Serve Spaghetti Meat Sauce
My kids love this meat sauce with short pasta, but I still prefer eating it with classic spaghetti. Sometimes I even boil spaghetti separately just for myself!
Another delicious way to enjoy the savory, saucy meat sauce? Serve it on top of fluffy rice in a hot bowl or cast-iron plate. You can even crisp up the rice until it is nice and crispy on the bottom, then pour the warmed sauce on top. Generously sprinkle the grated cheese, add extra grinds of black pepper, some chili flakes, or kimchi (if you’d like). Mix everything up and enjoy!
More Recipes You’ll Enjoy
- Pressure Cooker Spaghetti Bolognese
- Creamy Mushroom and Bacon Pasta
- Eggplant Parmesan Spaghetti Recipe
- Napolitan (Japanese Ketchup Spaghetti)
- Miso Butter Pasta with Tuna and Cabbage
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Spaghetti Meat Sauce
Ingredients
- ½ lb ground beef
- ¼ lb ground pork
- 3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic (sliced)
- 1 bay leaf (cut in half)
- 1 onion (minced)
- 1 carrot (minced)
- 1 rib celery (minced)
- 1 cup red wine
- 1 can whole tomato (28 oz, 794 g, including juices)
- 2 cups vegetable stock/broth
- 8 button mushrooms (sliced)
- 2 Tbsp unsalted butter
- Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- freshly ground black pepper
For Serving
- parsley (finely chopped, for garnish)
- Parmigiano-Reggiano or Parmesan cheese (grated)
Instructions
- Gather all the ingredients.
- In a large skillet, heat 3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil on medium heat and cook 2 cloves garlic (sliced) and 1 bay leaf (cut in half) until fragrant.
- Add 1 onion (minced), 1 carrot (minced), and 1 rib celery (minced). Sauté until golden brown.
- Add ½ lb ground beef and ¼ lb ground pork. Break into pieces with wooden spoon.
- Add 1 cup red wine and let it simmer until the alcohol is evaporated (no longer a strong wine smell).
- Add 1 can whole tomato and break up into small pieces with a wooden spoon. Add 2 cups vegetable stock/broth and 8 button mushrooms (sliced).
- Using a fine-mesh strainer, skim off the scum and foam on the surface. This process is important to achieve a refined taste. Prepare a bowl or measuring cup filled with water to clean the sieve as you skim.
- Cook the sauce, uncovered, on medium-low heat until the liquid is almost evaporated, about for 1 hour. Stir once in a while to make sure the ingredients do not stick to the bottom of the skillet. When you can draw a line on the bottom of the pan with a spatula, it‘s done. Toward the end of cooking, boil a pot of water and cook the spaghetti (or pasta of your choice).
- Add 2 Tbsp unsalted butter and stir to combine. Season the sauce with Diamond Crystal kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste (make sure you taste it. Don‘t be shy on salt as you will serve the sauce with pasta). Serve the meat sauce on spaghetti and garnish with chopped parsley. Top the dish with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano or Parmesan cheese at the table. Enjoy!
To Store
- You can keep the leftovers in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator for up to 3–4 days or in the freezer for 2 months.
Nutrition
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