Venison Spaghetti: A great way to use ground venison, and is delicious for a Sunday supper or a quick weeknight dinner.
Quick Overview: Ready in about 20 minutes, this venison spaghetti sauce, poured over spaghetti noodles, may just become your new favorite meal! Then, if you have leftover spaghetti, make sure to make this fried spaghetti!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
This venison meat sauce uses just a few, common ingredients that you may even have in your pantry already; tomato sauce and Italian seasoning (the salad dressing mix that comes in packets!) and dried diced onion, that’s even optional! It’s amazing how simple this recipe is but it can quickly become your new favorite sauce (or version of chicken bolognese sauce) for any kind of spaghetti recipe.
Serve these Instant Pot Frozen Meatballs (that use the same sauce recipe) over this spaghetti and you’ll have an incredibly hearty dish!
Almost every kind of pasta recipe is considered comfort food in our house, and this venison bolognese is no exception. When we’re craving hearty pasta dishes we either make this favorite pasta or will make something similar like this chili mac or this stroganoff recipe to use the ground deer meat that we have in our freezer. Have chicken? This chicken spaghetti recipe using Rotel is a must-make.
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Ingredients
Dinner recipes with simple ingredients are our favorite around here, so as you can see, it doesn’t take much to make this delicious recipe!
- 1 pound of ground venison: a very lean wild game that works great in pasta dishes. (Ground venison is also amazing to use for deer burgers.)
- 1 pound of uncooked spaghetti: I usually just grab a handful of uncooked spaghetti, enough to where my fingertips touch and this is approximately the same amount.
- 2 – 15 ounce cans of tomato sauce: any brand will do and it’s great to stock up on this for spaghetti recipes, chili recipes and much more!
- 2 – .6 ounce packages of Italian Dressing Seasoning: I only had one Zesty Italian and one regular on hand but you can use either kind, or both of the same kind!
- 1 Tablespoon dried chopped onion: This is optional but can add more great flavor.
Continue reading for step-by-step instructions for making this easy venison spaghetti or see the recipe card at the bottom of the post!
How to Make Deer Spaghetti
- Brown venison and chopped onion in a large skillet over medium-high heat, and to save time, also boil water in a large pot for the spaghetti noodles.
- When the water comes to a rolling boil, add spaghetti noodles and cook for 8-12 minutes until al dente, or however long the package directions say to.
- To save more time, while venison and noodles are cooking, mix together the tomato sauce and packages of Italian seasoning in a small bowl.
- When the ground meat has fully cooked (no more pink, and for about 5 minutes), it’s time to add the pasta sauce.
- Pour the (what is now) marinara sauce, in to the cooked meat and turn heat down to medium heat, and let cook/simmer for 1-2 minutes or until heated through.
- When the pasta has finished cooking, drain the pasta in a colander.
- Once fully drained, you can place cooked pasta in a serving bowl.
- If serving right away, you can pour the homemade spaghetti sauce on top of pasta.
If desired, sprinkle parmesan cheese on top or even fresh herbs!
Substitutions
- Wild Game – Although this recipe uses ground venison, you can also use ground elk, ground beef, or ground pork, (or combine them like we did in the lasagna soup recipe) or even combine venison with different meats.
- Onion – if you’d prefer to use raw onion, you absolutely can. Either white or yellow onion will be great, and you can use up to half of the fresh onion. Saute with the ground venison.
- Tomato Sauce – if you prefer a really thick sauce, you can substitute one can of tomato sauce with one can of tomato paste.
How to Store
If you have leftover spaghetti, we have the most delicious leftover spaghetti recipe coming to the blog very soon! It’s called fried spaghetti, and it’s incredible, so stay tuned!
However, to store any leftover spaghetti, store it in an airtight container and enjoy it within 3-5 days.
Top Tip
I learned this tip from my mom, and it has come in so handy over the years. If you’re not ready to serve the spaghetti noodles right away after they’ve finished cooking, leave them in the colander and run cold water over them to stop the cooking process.
But when you’re ready to serve the spaghetti, run hot water over the noodles, to warm them back up, allow the water to fully drain, and then serve!
FAQs
It is! But venison is also referred to as any meat that’s considered in the “deer” family. So this could include elk as well.
It is. It’s considered a leaner meat so it works great in recipes such as spaghetti, lasagna, chili, etc, where it can crumble easy and doesn’t have to hold it’s shape. Although if used for recipes such as burgers, it’s best to mix it with a fattier meat, such as sausage.
It’s not but can be commonly interchanged in recipes. Using ground venison in recipes that generally use ground beef is very common. Venison however, tends to have more of an “earthy” flavor, or some even say “gamey” flavor.
The fact that it tends to be more lean than hamburger, can make this a healthier option, fat-wise.
What to Serve with Venison Spaghetti
You can serve any side dish that you’d normally serve with pasta or even ground beef spaghetti. However, we love serving air fryer garlic bread and a side salad with this recipe!
Related Recipes
We usually have a deep freezer full of venison in our house, so you’ll find other venison recipes here as well that are reader favorites, such as deer steak, fried deer meat, and venison chili!
Did you make this? I’d be so grateful if you left a “star” rating below to let me know what you thought! Then, the next time you need a quick and easy recipe, come back to Fantabulosity to browse all of my easy recipes!
Recipe
Venison Spaghetti
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground venison
- 1 pound spaghetti noodles uncooked
- 2 – 15 ounce cans of tomato sauce
- 2 .6 ounce packets of Italian Dressing Seasoning Mix
- 1 Tablespoon dried diced onion
Instructions
- Brown one pound of venison and 1 Tablespoon of dried, chopped onion in a large skillet over medium-high heat, and to save time, also boil water in a large pot for the spaghetti noodles.
- When the water comes to a rolling boil, add 1 pound of spaghetti noodles and cook for 8-12 minutes until al dente, or however long the package directions say to.
- To save more time, while venison and noodles are cooking, mix together the 2 cans of tomato sauce and 2 packages of Italian seasoning in a small bowl.
- When the ground meat has full cooked (no more pink, and for about 5 minutes), it's time to add the pasta sauce.
- Pour the (what is now) marinara sauce, in to the cooked meat and turn heat down to medium heat, and let cook/simmer for 1-2 minutes or until heated through.
- When the pasta has finished cooking, drain the pasta in a colander.
- Once fully drained, you can place cooked pasta in a serving bowl.
- If serving right away, you can pour the homemade spaghetti sauce on top of pasta. Top with shredded parmesan cheese if desired!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.
Jen says
The BEST! Such a staple comfort food in our home! We loved this recipe!!!
Journa Liz Ramirez says
Thank you Jessica for making this simple yet delicious recipe for spaghetti. I’ll surely make this again.
Allyssa says
Super loved this recipe, it tasted so amazing and turned out really delicious! Highly recommended! Thanks for sharing this venison spaghetti! Well done!