Transform 2 cans of tomato sauce (plus a few spices) into a delicious, savory spaghetti sauce that’ll fill all the bellies around your table tonight! Pasta sauce has never been easier or more affordable.
Hey, friends! Are you weathering the storms ok? Times are tough right now all around. I think we’re all feeling it on some level. There is currently some food hoarding going on, which has depleted the grocery shelves a bit. Hopefully, though, you have a few cans of tomato sauce sitting in your pantry because that is all you need to create a delicious and filling spaghetti sauce for tonight’s dinner!
I truly hope you are doing well and staying healthy during this uncertain time. If there is ever anything you would like me to cover that relates to food or recipe creation, I’m all ears! This is a great recipe that my family loves and I hope yours does, too.
How To Make Spaghetti Sauce From Tomato Sauce
Step 1
Combine all of the following in a medium saucepan:
- Two 15-oz. cans tomato sauce
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp each oregano, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper
- 1/2 tsp each onion powder and garlic powder
Step 2
Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then simmer over medium-low heat for 20 minutes. Stir occasionally.
Pour over cooked pasta and top with Parmesan cheese, if desired.
Recipe Notes
- For a meaty sauce, add 1 pound of ground beef, turkey or sausage. If you go this route, cook the meat in a skillet first and drain grease. Add the remaining ingredients to the skillet and cook as directed.
- Spruce up the sauce by using any or all of the following: red pepper flakes, fresh tomatoes or diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, olive oil, fresh basil or dried basil, grated Parmesan, a few minced garlic cloves or fresh chopped onions.
- Add sugar 1 teaspoon at a time for a sweeter sauce.
- Store leftovers in an air-tight container in the fridge. Use within 4-5 days.
How To Thicken Tomato Sauce
Tomato sauce is a bold, delicious base for many recipes such as soup, chili and sauces. Learn how to thicken tomato sauce to create a robust texture for your next recipe.
Other Easy Homemade Sauces to Make This Week
If you are looking for other easy sauces to make from scratch, check out this helpful list of 18 homemade sauces you can use now or freeze for later. Inside this roundup, you’ll find savory sauces like pizza sauce and marinara sauce as well as sweet ones such as hot fudge sauce and blueberry, too!
Make Pasta Sauce Using a Can of Tomato Paste
And if you have paste on hand instead of sauce, try this super easy way to transform tomato paste into pasta sauce!
Make Homemade Spaghetti Sauce With Fresh or Frozen Tomatoes
If your pasta is already cooked and you just need a delicious, savory sauce to top your noodles with, consider making this delicious homemade pasta sauce with fresh or frozen tomatoes!
How To Thicken Pasta Sauce
If you make or purchase a batch of pasta sauce and find that is thin and lacks substance, there are ways to fix it! Read on for tips about how to make thick spaghetti sauce.
Marinara vs Spaghetti Sauce
So close in texture, color and flavor that you could call them cousins! Let’s get to the heart of the issue and explore marinara vs spaghetti sauce. What are the differences?!
Recipes To Make Using Pasta Sauce
Aside from the obvious reason (the amazing FLAVOR!), my favorite thing about pasta sauce is that it is so versatile. Here are a few ideas for ways to enjoy it!
- Pour it over the top of cooked noodles of any kind.
- If you have extras on hand, check out these ideas for recipes to make using leftover spaghetti sauce so nothing goes to waste.
- Use in place of store-bought sauce in your next pan of Baked Spaghetti or Baked Ziti!
- Crockpot Spaghetti and Meatballs
- Lasagna and Cheesy Manicotti are both sooo good when made with Instant Pot spaghetti sauce!
- Use it as an ingredient to stuff spaghetti squash with!
- Add it to your morning eggs because everything tastes great with eggs.
- Top scrambled eggs with a few spoonfuls!
- Use it as a dip for breadsticks or garlic bread.
Other Recipes To Make With Tomato Sauce
- Add them to your next batch of scrambled eggs.
- Replace pasta sauce with it for your next plate of spaghetti.
- Use as an ingredient in your next vat of amazing chili.
- Use it as a salad dressing (seriously, I did this and it ROCKED).
- Stir it into a bowl of comforting mac and cheese.
Spaghetti Sauce Made Using Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
- 30 oz tomato sauce
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients in a medium sauce pan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then simmer over medium-low heat for 20 minutes. Stir occasionally.
- Pour over cooked pasta and top with Parmesan cheese, if desired.
Notes
- For a meaty sauce, add 1 pound of ground beef, turkey or sausage. If you go this route, cook the meat in a skillet first and drain grease. Add the remaining ingredients to the skillet and cook as directed.
- Spruce up the sauce by using any or all of the following: red pepper flakes, fresh tomatoes or diced tomatoes, crushed tomatoes, olive oil, fresh basil or dried basil, grated Parmesan, a few minced garlic cloves or fresh chopped onions.
- Add sugar 1 teaspoon at a time for a sweeter sauce.
- Store leftovers in an air-tight container in the fridge. Use within 4-5 days.
- Add this sauce to your next Pizza Pasta Bake!
I think it’s absolutely laughable to those who think a teaspoon of pepper is too much and spicy.
This recipe was fantastic and a basic. Just what you need for a spaghetti sauce. Get the basic down, and tweak as you need. Love it! Thanks so much for the help!
I love flavor and spice as well – this base recipe is so easy to customize for ourselves and our loved ones, I agree. Thank you for taking the time to share!!
Just want you to know that I still use this recipe. But today I made whole wheat spaghetti using this sauce. And it turned out great. You would never know it was whole wheat spaghetti
This recipe was a big help when I was under the weather and got some giant cans of tomato sauce as a substitution for fully prepared sauce in my grocery order. Easy to throw together with pantry stuff and nobody complained! Good recipe to lean on when you’re low on time and energy and need to put together something with ingredients you already have around (especially if you’re feeding any picky eaters!).
That is so great to hear, Mo. I’m glad it turned out delicious and was helpful. Thank you for sharing!!
I needed a no salt recipe for my mother who just had a heart attack a few weeks ago. I had some no salt tomato sauce and this worked great. I probably will use less pepper next time but all in all I believe this will satisfy her wanting spaghetti. I am not a salt person either so don’t mind not adding salt. It tastes good, I just added extra spices.
Thank you Donna, I’m glad to hear that you both enjoyed it and it was helpful for what you needed.
I’m a 64 year old husband of a great cook. Well I was supposed to cook the meat, drain it, and add the bottle of prego as usual. No pregro !!! What am I supposed to do? l found your recipe in the “mighty Google Library”! Followed it, and did everything as is. I agree that it seemed to salty. But you can’t give it a fair shake, unless you do it after it’s on the pasta. You can teach an old dog new tricks! It was fantastic!!!
Love that story – thank you for sharing! There are so many varieties of tomato sauce out there, so I agree, hold off salting until close to the end because they vary so much. My recommendation is based on my brands and quantities. It could change person to person because we all purchase and use variations of the same thing.
Thank you, Jim!
Not a bad recipe in terms of ingredients, but I found the proportions to be way off. Maybe it matters what Italian Seasoning “blend” you have, but between that and additional oregano, oregano was all we tasted. Also I used to think you couldn’t add too much pepper to anything and this recipe proved me wrong. It wasn’t even the heat of the pepper, just truly that it was overpowering. I’d make this recipe again but with some serious adjustments to those two ingredients.
Glad you figured out what you prefer and can tweak it. Thanks for sharing!
when I was growing up the sauce that was always used was prego . this sauce tastes very similar but better. love it. this will be my go to sauce from now on.
We all know prego! But yes, you can improve on it with just a little attention – glad you enjoyed it!
Excellent! That’s all I have to say!
So glad you were able to try it and liked it! Happy Cooking, Johanna!
Too much pepper. It was too spicy for us. Next time less pepper and it will be perfect
Such an easy tweak to make. Glad you knew what you like and how to adjust it. Thanks for sharing!
Spaghetti-sauce-made-using-tomato-sauce saved dinner. I had never before made spaghetti without a large can or two of whole or stewed tomatoes. I was out of both, so I searched online and found this recipe that used just tomato sauce. I also had tomato paste and my usual spices, but I decided to not use sugar. I made this recipe in only 30 minutes rather than my usual two hours. I will use this recipe often, since it saves me time and money. Thank-you for putting this recipe online.
So glad to hear that it was helpful, Terry!
I was having a pregnancy craving for spaghetti but didn’t have any spaghetti sauce, and I am so glad I came across your recipe!! I used ground beef and my family loved it, even the toddlers!!!! What is funny is my husband commented he would like more oregano next time! I see this is the complete opposite of other reviews, but it shows that everyone has their own preferences. I will definitely use this recipe again and tweak for more oregano! 🙂 thank you so much for sharing!!
Those pregnancy cravings are real! So glad you found this recipe and we got your craving fulfilled. Thank you for sharing, Kristen! Oregano it is!
pretty good but I think the oregano was over powering because it’s also in the Italian seasoning. next time I think I will just use Italian seasoning.
I get that Patti. I’m glad you figured that out and it’s a simple tweak! Thanks for sharing.
I too, only had a case of tomato sauce in my pantry from Sam’s. I had all the seasonings except for Oregano. I AM SOLD!!! It was so good and easy to put together. I made Spaghetti with meat sauce. My family loved it. This recipe is a KEEPER! Thanks so much!
Love that, Josie! I’m a fan of simple and using what’s on hand. It’s valuable! Thank you for sharing.
“Some” food hoarding does NOT lead to depleation of food on shelves in stores. There ate food recalls, explosion in gas prices leading to trucks unable to deliver food, and also high good prices. Maybe correcting your statement to a non biased opinion would have been a more appropriate choicr.
Oh my goodness, your recipe was a lifesaver! I literally had only tomato sauce and the spices EXCEPT Italian seasoning. But it still came out delicious and it is my go to recipe now!
That is wonderful, Courtney! So glad you tried it and it was what you needed! Thanks for sharing.
Can you water bath can this
Sure! This isn’t something I’ve done a lot of but you can for sure easily do it.
This sauce was simply and delicious I added a can of rotel tomatoes and meat to mine no mre Ragu sauce for me I know the s secret now
That’s a great suggestion Jackie! I’d enjoy that too. My boys, not so much but then maybe they’d like the kick! Thanks for sharing!
This turned out great! My husband has to have a low sodium diet, and low sodium spaghetti sauce is hard to come by and expensive. This is the perfect solution. I used NoSalt and added red pepper flakes. Put it over spaghetti squash with onions, peppers, and mushrooms, topped with parmesan. Perfect! Thanks 🙂
So glad it was enjoyed and healthy for your diet needs. Thanks for sharing those ideas Jennifer!