Italian Meatball Sauce

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You’ll just LOVE how easy this homemade Italian meatball sauce is to make. You’ll probably like it so much, you’ll ditch the shop bought jars!

Homemade Italian meatball sauce is so simple to make and tastes way better than a shop bought jar.

Even if you cheat and buy ready made meatballs (which I often do) dinner will just be way nicer with a homemade tomato sauce. 

Tarantella sent over some tins of their delicious organic tomatoes and I just couldn’t wait to get cooking with them.

The Tarantella tomatoes are just packed with sweet juicy flavour, practically tasty enough to use as a sauce already, which is why you’ll only need a handful of ingredients to cook up our delicious Italian meatball sauce. 

Italian Meatball Sauce Ingredients

• 1 tbs olive oil

• 2 cloves garlic – finely chopped – or use the fine side of the grater

• 1 small onion – finely chopped

• 2 tins chopped tomatoes

• 1 tsp dried oregano

• Handful of basil leaves – roughly torn

• Salt and pepper – season to taste

How to make Italian Meatball Sauce

The key to a great tasting tomato pasta sauce is to use good quality tinned tomatoes, the better the tomatoes, the simpler the sauce is to make.

When your canned tomatoes are good, you only need a few added ingredients to really make your pasta sauce sing.

• Add a splash of olive oil to a saucepan – tip in the onions and fry gently for 5 minutes to soften them.

• Add in the garlic and cook for another few minutes.

• Tip in the chopped tomatoes, add the oregano and season with salt and pepper.

• Bring the sauce to the boil then reduce the heat to low and simmer with the lid off for around 30-40 minutes until the sauce reduces and thickens.

• Remove from the heat and stir in the torn basil.

Make meatball sauce your own way

• Add in some extra veggies – try grated carrots or a handful of chopped fresh spinach. This is a good idea if you’re trying to squeeze extra ‘hidden’ vegetables into the kids diets.

• Go spicy and add a pinch of chilli flakes or add a finely chopped fresh chilli. It give the sauce a spicy arrabiata flavour which is delicious with meatballs.

• Got a busy day ahead – throw the ingredients into the slow cooker and leave on low for 8 hours. 

How to serve Italian meatball sauce 

• Cook up some meatballs and toss them into the sauce. Serve on a bed of freshly cooked spaghetti. 

• You can also use this sauce as a pizza sauce or use in panini or as a bolognese sauce. 

More easy pasta sauce recipes

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• One Pot Orzo Bolognese – think of this delicious pasta dish as a type of bolognese risotto – the tiny orzo pasta is perfect for cooking in the sauce.

• Canned Tuna Pasta – our easy tuna pasta sauce using canned tuna can be on the table in minutes. Great for weeknight family dinner.

• Easy Pesto – whizz up your own homemade pesto in no time with our easy Basil pesto recipe.

Save our deliciously easy Italian Meatball Sauce to Pinterest for later

Hey – we hope you enjoy the recipe and when you cook it don’t forget to tag us your creations on Twitter @daisiesandpieUK or Instagram @daisiesandpie

Disclosure – the Tarantella tomatoes were sent free of charge for review – for full details of my disclosure policy please read here.