Italian Sunday Sauce with Meatballs and Sausage

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Last Updated on September 17, 2026 by Kiersten James

Make my family’s Italian Sunday sauce with meatballs and sausage, slowly simmered in a rich tomato sauce for a classic family pasta dinner.

This is the big pot of Italian sauce I make when we’re having family over, when I need enough for several meals, or simply when I have a day at home to let it cook.

It’s thick, rich, loaded with sausage and meatballs, and simmers on the stove for most of the day.

My mother-in-law grew up on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, and that side of our family has always taken Italian food very seriously.

Here on Long Island, a pot of sauce on the stove is just part of life. It’s a lot like pasta fagioli soup – it’s there for Sunday dinner, birthdays, Christmas, company, and any other occasion that involves feeding a house full of people.

Some families call it Sunday sauce. Others call it Sunday gravy. We’ve always just called it sauce.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• It makes a BIG pot. This isn’t a little batch of tomato sauce. There’s plenty for dinner, leftovers, and usually some for the freezer.
• It’s the sauce my family actually eats. This isn’t something I developed specifically for the blog. It’s how I make a big pot of red sauce at home (pretty much every other week).
• The meat cooks right in the sauce. Sausage, meatballs, or beef slowly flavor the tomatoes as everything simmers together.
• It cooks the way good sauce should. Give it several hours on the stove and let it reduce slowly until it’s thick and rich.
• You can use it for much more than spaghetti. We use it for baked pasta, stuffed shells, lasagna, emergency pizza, meatball heroes, sausage, and plenty of other meals.
• It freezes beautifully. I always make enough to put some away.

What Is Italian Sunday Sauce?

Sunday sauce is a slow-cooked Italian-American tomato sauce traditionally made with meat. Depending on the family, that might mean meatballs, Italian sausage, pork, beef, braciole, or some combination of them.

The important part is time. This isn’t a 30-minute marinara.

The sauce stays on the stove for hours while the tomatoes cook down and the meat flavors the entire pot. By dinner, the sauce should be noticeably darker, thicker, and richer than it was when you started.

And despite the name, you certainly don’t have to make it on Sunday.

Sunday Sauce is Not Just for Sundays

Snowstorm coming? Put on a pot of sauce.

Someone coming over? Put on a pot of sauce.

Birthday? Christmas Eve? Funeral? A bunch of relatives suddenly appearing at the house? Put on the sauce.

That’s probably a better explanation of how we eat this than calling it “Sunday sauce.”

A big pot feeds a lot of people without making dinner complicated, and once it’s simmering, it mostly takes care of itself.

Set out pasta, grated cheese, bread, meatballs, and sausage, and everyone can eat.

Is It Sauce or Gravy?

This can become a very heated discussion in an Italian-American family.

Some families call a tomato sauce cooked with meat gravy, while others call it sauce regardless of what’s in it. You’ll hear both around New York and New Jersey, and every family seems convinced its version is the right one.

I’m not getting involved in that argument.

In our house, it’s sauce. Call yours whatever you grew up calling it.

Ingredients

You don’t need anything unusual to make a good pot of sauce. The biggest ingredient is really time.

Tomatoes: Use good-quality canned tomatoes because they’re the base of the entire recipe.

Tomato paste: This gives the sauce a deeper tomato flavor and helps it become thick and rich as it cooks.

Onion and garlic: These go in at the beginning and build the base of the sauce.

Italian sausage: I usually use Italian sausage (with fennel seed) because it gives the sauce so much flavor while it simmers.

Beef or meatballs: Meatballs can cook right in the sauce and absorb all of that tomato flavor. Chop meat is easy to brown and throw in the pot. Use whichever you prefer.

Herbs and seasonings: Keep them simple. The sauce develops most of its flavor from the tomatoes, meat, garlic, and long cooking time.

How to Make New York Italian Sunday Sauce

Ingredients:

• 3 28oz cans whole peeled or crushed tomatoes
• 2 lbs sweet Italian sausage links
• 2 lbs ground beef or homemade meatballs
• 1 large sweet onion, diced
• 6 cloves garlic, pressed (or 2 heaping tablespoons minced)
• 3 dried bay leaves
• 4 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons salt
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano

Instructions:

1. Brown THE MEAT

In a heavy stock pot or enameled Dutch oven, brown the sausage on all sides then remove to a large bowl. Brown the meatballs, then remove to the same bowl as the sausage.

2. Add the tomatoes and seasonings.

In the same pot over medium-low heat, cook the onion until softened, then add the garlic. Garlic burns quickly, so it only needs a short time in the pot before you add the tomatoes.

Add the tomatoes, salt, sugar, bay leaves, and oregano, then stir everything together well, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pot.

3. Add the meat.

Return the meat to the sauce. Stir gently, making sure the meat is mostly submerged.

As the meat cooks, it will flavor the entire pot.

4. Let it simmer.

This is where you don’t want to rush things.

Keep the sauce at a low simmer for several hours, stirring it every so often so nothing catches on the bottom of the pot.

You aren’t looking for a hard boil. It should just quietly bubble away.

As the hours pass, you’ll notice the sauce getting thicker and darker. That’s exactly what you want.

5. Taste before serving.

Once the sauce has reduced and the meat is completely cooked, taste it and adjust the salt and seasoning if necessary.

Then boil the pasta.

Don’t Rush the Simmer

If there’s one thing I wouldn’t change about this recipe, it’s the cooking time.

You can certainly make tomato sauce faster, but it won’t taste the same as a pot that’s been sitting on the stove all afternoon.

Keep the heat low and give it time.

If the sauce starts getting too thick before you’re ready for dinner, lower the heat rather than continually adding water. If necessary, you can loosen it with a small amount of pasta water just before serving.

How We Serve It

Most often, I serve this with pasta and put the sausage and meatballs on the table separately so everyone can take what they want.

Add plenty of grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano and a loaf of bread, and that’s dinner.

The leftover sauce also gets used throughout the week. It’s good for baked ziti, lasagna, pizza, stuffed shells, chicken Parmesan, meatball heroes, or anything else that needs red sauce.

Storing Leftover Sauce

Let the sauce cool, then transfer it to covered containers and refrigerate it promptly.

For longer storage, freeze the sauce in quart-size containers. I like doing this because pulling homemade sauce from the freezer makes an otherwise ordinary weeknight dinner very easy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is it called Sunday sauce?

Sunday sauce is an Italian-American tradition of making a large pot of tomato sauce, usually with meat, for a family meal. Sunday was traditionally the day when everyone gathered together after church for a larger dinner, so the name stuck.

Is Sunday sauce the same as Sunday gravy?

Usually, yes. The terminology varies by family and region. Some Italian-American families reserve the word “gravy” for tomato sauce cooked with meat, while others call everything sauce.

How long should Sunday sauce simmer?

I let mine simmer low and slow for several hours. The exact time matters less than what the sauce looks and tastes like. It should become thick, dark red, and rich rather than tasting like freshly opened canned tomatoes.

Do I have to use meatballs?

No. One of the nice things about a family sauce is that you can use the meats your family likes. Italian sausage, meatballs, beef, pork, or a combination can all work.

Can I make Sunday sauce ahead of time?

Absolutely. In fact, it’s a great recipe to make ahead because the flavor holds up beautifully. Make it the day before, refrigerate it, and gently reheat it on the stove.

Can I freeze Italian Sunday sauce?

Yes. This is one of my favorite sauces to keep in the freezer. Freeze cooled sauce in portions that make sense for your family, leaving a little room in the container for expansion.

More of Our Family’s Italian Recipes

If you’re putting together an Italian dinner, my mother-in-law’s Pasta Fagioli is another family recipe that’s been made for years.

For something more substantial, try my Italian Stromboli, Spinach Ricotta Pie, or Italian Stuffed Mushrooms.

And my Crispy Italian Chicken Cutlets are one of those basic recipes worth knowing because you can turn them into several different meals.

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