11 Ingredients That Upgrade Boring Spaghetti Sauce

There are few things more convenient than a jar of pre-made spaghetti sauce. After all, it's already got all of the key ingredients — the only thing you need to do is heat it up and mix in the pasta of your choice. However, when you have the time, these sauces can always benefit from a few extra ingredients. Whether you're looking to add richness, cut sweetness, or increase the complexity of your meal, it doesn't have to be hard to upgrade a boring spaghetti sauce. In fact, you may just need an extra ingredient or two.

The ingredients and techniques we're about to explore can make any pasta sauce — whether it's tangy and tomato-based or a creamy white sauce — taste like it came straight from an authentic Italian restaurant. The best part? You most likely have many of these things in your fridge or pantry waiting and ready to be mixed with that jar of ragu. Read on to discover the simple ingredients that can take your spaghetti sauce to the next level.

These might be a more obvious choice, given the abundance of olives across Italy and the rest of the Mediterranean, but they are often unfairly slept on when it comes to spaghetti sauce. These little morsels add a touch of salinity and brininess to any one-note dish, and they are especially compatible with the natural sweetness of a tomato sauce or gravy. Chop them up and incorporate them in your simmer for a more cohesive bite, or throw them in near the end and deploy them as flavor bombs in your spaghetti.

When it comes to picking the right olive for your spaghetti sauce, it depends on what flavors you are already working with. For example, kalamata olives, which are known for their acidity and richness, might add more body to your dish, while something like a pimento-stuffed Spanish queens will lend fragrance and texture, especially to a wine-based sauce. The one thing that you can count on, regardless of your choice of olive, is an added savoriness that will complement any spaghetti meal.

Many home cooks only consider Parmesan to be a simple garnish atop an already-finished bowl of spaghetti, but that could not be further from its only use case. There are plenty of other ways to use this versatile cheese, including adding it directly to your sauce to give it a nutty and salty quality. 

When it comes to incorporating Parmesan cheese into your sauce, you have a couple of equally effective options. You can either sprinkle the cheese directly into an already-complete pot of sauce, or you can emulsify the cheese by mixing it with some hot pasta water, allowing it to transform into a silky coating for your spaghetti. Sprinkling usually works better for a red sauce, where the parmesan flavor is more of an accent than a focal point, while emulsifying is good for a cream-based sauce — or even a simple Parmesan butter sauce with pasta water, cooking stock, and the seasonings of your choice.

If you chop your onions finely enough and add them directly to your pot, you won't even notice that they are there — after all, they will lose much of their bite, both flavor and texture-wise, when you cook them down. What you will notice, though, is an added sweetness and richness in your spaghetti sauce. Mincing your onions allows you to seamlessly integrate them into your spaghetti, without fear of crunching on an underdone chunk or slurping on a too-large slice. 

The flavor and texture that onions lend your sauce will depend on how long you cook them. If you only simmer them until they are translucent, they will give your sauce a more varied and rustic texture and a little bit of acid. But, if you give them time to caramelize in a pan or via an easy steaming technique, you will coax out a complex, toasty sweetness from them — and a decadence that will pair well with both red and white spaghetti sauces.

If you are looking to add a bit of extra oomph to your sauce, bacon is sure to do the trick — and it could not be simpler to prepare. Just take your favorite store-bought bacon, chop the strips into small, bite-sized pieces, and you're ready to get cooking. Try sautéing them in a pan or baking them in the oven for crispier pieces, or throwing them directly into your sauce and simmering them for more unctuous, tender bite. The choice is yours, and no matter which method you choose, your spaghetti sauce will benefit from extra fat (read: flavor), smokiness, and saltiness.

Many Italian pasta dishes feature pancetta (pork belly) or guanciale (pork jowl), and you can use the more-accessible bacon in exactly the same way. Throw bacon bits into your carbonara, marinara, or Alfredo sauces to make your next spaghetti dish just that much more delicious.

Whether you are working with a tomato-based or cream-based sauce, peas add a surprising sweetness, as well as a fun popping texture. Whether you go the fresh or frozen route, adding peas to your spaghetti sauce is as easy as sprinkling them into the pot. They can be the sole, star ingredient in your spaghetti, or they can complement the meat of your choice in a hearty Bolognese sauce.

If your sauce is especially rich from cream, cheese, butter, or red meat, having a vegetal element like peas can help you take it to the next level. They will break up the unctuousness of your forkful by adding some freshness and variety, but they are not enough of a curveball to alter the flavor or cohesiveness of your sauce. Peas are a great way to get some veggies into a luxurious pasta dish — and to have fun while doing it.

While honey might initially seem like an unlikely companion to a spaghetti sauce, it actually works as a natural sweetener that can add a subtle, floral quality to your pasta dish. If you know how to spot fake honey, you can bypass it and go straight to the liquid gold with a less potent aroma and flavor, as well as more complex caramel notes and an ultra-thick consistency. 

Like with many of the other sauce-upgrading ingredients on this list, honey can be a main ingredient in a pasta sauce, like featuring garlic and Italian sausage, or a sweet embellishment to an already-finished dish. Try a drizzle of honey in a tomato sauce, especially one that is more sour and acidic, to cut any harsh flavors and mellow out your marinara. Plus, if you like a little kick, you can even spike your spaghetti with a generous helping of homemade hot honey.

One of the best things about spaghetti sauce is its versatility. You would be surprised by how quickly you can turn a classic Italian sauce into a complex fusion dish that can add some spice to your dinner table, or even remind you of home. In his 2023 James Beard Media Award-winning personal essay "Immigrant Spaghetti," journalist Farhan Mustafa describes the experience of eating spaghetti prepared lovingly by his North Indian family:

"We loved having "Italian night" growing up," Mustafa says. "On those evenings, my mom, or Ammi as we called her, jacked up store-bought Ragu or Prego with Indian spices like coriander, cumin, and a little turmeric."

Mustafa said that moments like this not only gave his spaghetti dishes a delightful flavor, but that they allowed him and his friends of different origins and identities a chance to add international flair to this Italian staple. Cumin is a great place to start when "jacking up" your own spaghetti, as it can give a fragrant, nutty, and smoky flavor to any boring sauce — and it is especially delicious with and complementary to a garlicky marinara.

Everyone knows that basil is a quintessential Italian ingredient. You can find topping a Margherita pizza or as the key ingredient in pesto alla Genovese — but there is a big difference between using it fresh and employing it in wilted form. The truth is, you can treat basil the same way you'd treat any other potent leafy green, like mustard greens or arugula. 

You can wilt your basil in a pan with olive oil before incorporating it into your spaghetti, or you can simply add it straight to your pot of sauce and let time do the work. With both methods, the heat will express the fragrant, herbaceous flavor of the basil, as well as seamlessly marry it with the sauce. You may be surprised by how much extra flavor it brings once it's cooked down rather than just sprinkled on top! If you'd rather keep the consistency of your spaghetti sauce more uniform, feel free to chop your basil into thin ribbons before starting the wilting process.

When it comes to spaghetti, lemon juice's most common use case is the ever-cheesy and fresh al limone — but there are plenty of other easy and delicious ways to incorporate it into a boring spaghetti sauce. Many store-bought sauces are full of sugar, and, while tasty, can often be overwhelming if you add them directly to your spaghetti. A small squeeze of lemon can help make that sweetness a little less harsh.

Think of lemon juice as working the opposite way as honey. For example, if your sauce is overly rich and could use some acidity, lemon juice is a great way to balance it out while still adding a slight sweetness and fragrance to your dish. Plus, if your spaghetti could benefit from a bit more pizzazz in the plating stage, lemon zest can add a pop of color — and a mild citrusy flavor — to each portion.

The not-so-secret seasoning in uniquely tasty Italian sausage is fennel seeds. They bring a slightly-sweet flavor of licorice, as well as a gentle bitterness, to all of that unctuous ground pork — but who says they need to be hidden in sausage? In reality, adding fennel seeds to spaghetti sauce creates the illusion that there's Italian sausage in the dish, even if it is meat-free. It also is a natural complement to the full repertoire of spaghetti sauce ingredients, including garlic, basil, tomato, and butter.

To bring out the flavor of fennel even further, try toasting the seeds in an in a pan before incorporating it into your pasta. Doing so will give the fennel an extra layer of sweetness, as well as a welcome crunch to a spaghetti sauce that lacks texture. If you would rather keep your sauce more homogenous, try using ground fennel as opposed to the seeds!

Whether it's a full-bodied red wine or a bottom-shelf vodka, alcohol adds infinite complexity to any spaghetti sauce it's a part of. If your sauce is based out of butter and stock, try some white wine (especially if you're making a seafood pasta!). Middle-of-the-line "pink sauce" can be leveled up with vodka (after all, vodka and tomatoes make the perfect sauce pairing), and classic ragu with red meat can usually benefit from some red wine. 

If you're adding alcohol to your spaghetti sauce, the rulebook is short and your options are limitless. However, a common mistake people make when adding wine to pasta sauce is not simmering your sauce for long enough. Try waiting for about half of the wine to evaporate from the pot — while you won't have cooked off all of the alcohol, you should have successfully ridded your dish of any astringency or rawness, while still maximizing its flavor!