My Husband’s Favorite Sauce
I first discovered the internet-famous Brian’s Favorite Sauce on Allrecipes more than twenty years ago, and it quickly became my husband's favorite spaghetti sauce. After he began following a lower sodium lifestyle, recreating this recipe became one of my highest priorities because I wasn't ready to let one of our family favorites disappear from the menu.
The biggest challenge was the Italian sausage. Traditional Italian sausage is difficult to find in a lower sodium version, but I eventually discovered that making my own at home was surprisingly easy. Using a salt-free Italian sausage seasoning blend with ground pork or turkey lets us enjoy the same rich flavor while keeping this recipe under 100 mg of sodium per serving.
My Husband’s Favorite Sauce (Adapted from Brian’s Favorite Sauce)
Yield: 5-6 cups of sauce
Serving size: 3/4 cup of sauce (about 8 servings)
Per serving (calculated with MyFitnessPal):
Calories: 282
Fat: 19.5g
Sodium: 95 mg
Total Carbs: 22.2 g
Sugar: 14.7 g
Protein: 12.8 g
Ingredients
1 to 1 ½ Tbsp World Spice salt-free Italian sausage mix
1 lb ground pork or turkey
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 Tbsp olive oil
(2) 15 oz cans Hunt’s no salt added tomato sauce
(2) 15 oz cans Hunt’s no salt added diced tomatoes (see recipe notes below)
(1) 6 oz can Hunt’s no salt added tomato paste (see recipe notes below)
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
½ teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon salt substitute (optional)
2 tablespoons white sugar
1 pinch cayenne pepper
Directions:
A few hours in advance (or overnight), add the Italian sausage seasoning into your ground meat. Mix well, cover, and put back in the fridge until you are ready to cook. This lets the seasoning and meat blend.
When you’re ready to make the sauce, sauté the onion and garlic in the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat until the onion begins to soften. Add the prepared ground Italian sausage from earlier, breaking up and browning the meat until no pink remains. Drain off any excess fat.
When the meat is fully cooked, add the remaining ingredients, mix well to combine, and simmer for 15-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve over your favorite no sodium pasta.
Serving suggestions:
Pair with:
A side salad and your favorite low or zero sodium dressing, such as Organicville’s No Salt Added Italian or Panera’s Balsamic Vinaigrette
Cheesecake Factory Brown Bread Rolls (only 140 mg of sodium per roll)
Pepperidge Farm Texas Toast: Mozzarella and Monterey Jack or Five Cheese (both 190 mg per slice).
Notes:
The original recipe uses four cans of diced tomatoes and no tomato paste. We prefer using two cans plus tomato paste for a thicker sauce. For a thinner sauce, use all four cans and skip the tomato paste.
We find that the herbs in this sauce provide plenty of flavor without the need for the usual low sodium tomato sauce hacks. In fact, the flavors of this sauce will deepen overnight, and the leftovers freeze beautifully for another time.
The estimated nutrition above may change if the manufacturer alters the product or you use different ingredient brands.