Spaghetti w/ Meat Sauce

Quick family-style spaghetti with a simple meat marinara sauce. Onion and garlic build flavor, and pasta water helps the sauce cling. Optional dairy makes it creamy; finish with parmesan.

Unbalanced

% Daily Values based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Step 1

Start your side dish of choice; continue while it’s cooking.

Step 2

Heavily salt water in a pot and put over high heat to bring to a boil for pasta.

Step 3

In a separate sauce pan, heat olive oil over medium heat; add garlic and diced onions and sauté for 2–3 minutes.

Step 4

Cook your pasta.

Step 5

Add in ground beef, pasta sauce, seasonings, and the whole chunk of remaining yellow onion (for flavor; fish it out at the end and discard).

Step 6

Simmer for 5–10 minutes, scooping 1/3–1/2 cup of pasta water into the sauce for starch & flavor.

Step 7

If you like creamy red sauce, add in cream cheese, ricotta, or half & half.

Step 8

Grate parmesan as a topping.