Spaghetti & Meat Sauce

This is the meat sauce you make when you want the house to smell incredible for the next hour.

Ground beef and spicy Italian sausage get browned together with onion and garlic, then simmer with tomatoes, tomato paste, mushrooms, and a splash of chicken broth that adds unexpected depth.

The Dutch oven holds everything together while Italian seasoning and bay leaves do their slow, fragrant work.

Thirty minutes of simmering and you’ve got a thick, rich sauce that coats every strand and feeds a full table of eight.

Pro Tips

• The chicken broth is the secret ingredient here. It rounds out the acidity of the tomatoes and gives the sauce a savory backbone that water alone can’t provide.
• Chop the mushrooms fine so they melt into the sauce. You want their earthy flavor distributed through every bite, not sitting in big chunks.
• Remove the bay leaves before serving. Biting into one is a fast way to ruin an otherwise great plate of pasta.