One Meaty Addition Makes Spaghetti Sauce A Whole Lot More Flavorful

Homemade spaghetti sauce can beat even the best jarred product any day, so long as it's well balanced. But a good spaghetti sauce requires more than just combining a can of tomatoes with a little garlic and olive oil. The acid in tomatoes is strong, so you need to consider how to balance out the sharpness. Some rely on regular white sugar (a la Peter Clemenza in "The Godfather"), but you might be surprised how much bacon can enhance and balance a tomato-based pasta sauce.

The fat is an excellent foil to the acidity in the tomatoes, ultimately mellowing it and creating a delicious richness. Render the bacon and use the fat to saute an aromatic base; then add in the chopped-up pieces at the end. Bacon adds savory, smoky notes to pasta sauce, making it feel more hearty and satisfying. In a way, adding bacon to spaghetti sauce is like creating Amatriciana sauce, a Roman specialty that's made with guanciale (cured pork jowl), olive oil, chile flakes, tomatoes, and Pecorino Romano cheese. 

The biggest differences between the two cured meats are that guanciale is fattier and not usually smoked like bacon is. However, the bacon fat gently permeates spaghetti sauce in a similar way, giving it a rich texture without overwhelming it. Pancetta is another type of cured (but not smoked) meat that you can treat just like bacon in spaghetti sauce. Because it is also made from pork belly, it contains a similar amount of fat — it will crisp up nicely and render some yummy grease.

Growing up, my family rarely had meat-free spaghetti sauce on pasta night. My parents would brown ground beef and combine it with a jar of Ragu — that is how I knew spaghetti to be, but there is so much more you can do. Ground turkey or a meatloaf mix (equal parts ground beef, veal, and pork) can be used instead. Crumbled sweet or spicy Italian sausage is another great option, as these are usually flavored with ingredients like fennel, parsley, onion, and garlic. All of these meaty additions go well with a bit of bacon too, so you get both a satisfying meaty texture and deep, smoky flavor. 

If you're making your spaghetti sauce from scratch, you'll still need to do more than just add meat to crushed tomatoes to round out the flavors. Most recipes will call for ingredients like garlic, onions, and herbs — such as basil, parsley, or oregano — to do this. A splash of white or red wine also adds a lovely, complementary brightness. 

If you want to make jarred pasta sauce taste a whole lot better, cook up a bit of bacon and add it, plus some of the rendered fat, right into the sauce. It's another one of those great tricks that make jarred pasta sauce taste homemade, and the addition of bacon makes the straightforward combination of ground meat and store-bought sauce taste much more dynamic.