Slow Cooker Pasta Sauce, for Beginners
I needed a recipe for sauce--pasta sauce to be exact. As a domestic novice with a New Year’s resolution to master dinner and a new slow cooker in the kitchen, sauce recipes seemed the best place to start. Boiling spaghetti and heating up pre-made pasta sauce had kept me fed since college: Pasta and sauce is a medium I’m comfortable with. However I’d been itching to offer my accomplished cook boyfriend something a little more, shall we say, not of the jar.
But most slow cooker recipes—touted as one of the easiest methods out there—intimidated me. Many “easy recipes” called for ingredients I couldn’t readily locate, or warned of starting the slow cooker on high heat, then switching to low to make sure the required raw meat was cooked through, not hard, but something I’d surely forget to do. Like most “easy recipes” I’d encountered, these left too much room for error. If there was room for it, I’d fit it in.
I called a friend who knows all about my hopeless outlook on dinner and she gave me a recipe for sauce that is truly basic.
Add this simple slow cooker pasta sauce recipe to your meal planner!
Makes 6 to 8 servings
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 onions, chopped
2 green bell peppers, sliced
5 teaspoons minced garlic
2 stalks celery, sliced
2 pounds ground beef
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
2 cans (15 ounces each) tomato sauce
2 cans (15 ounces each) stewed tomatoes, undrained
2 cups water
1 tablespoon dried oregano
4 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 tablespoon sugar
1 pound dry pasta
Directions
Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add garlic, bell pepper, onion and celery; cook and stir until tender (about 5 minutes). Place in slow cooker. In same skillet, brown ground beef (about 4 minutes). Drain and place in slow cooker.
Add water, mushrooms, tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes, oregano, salt, black pepper and sugar to slow cooker. Cover; cook on low 6 to 8 hours or on high 3 to 5 hours.
Cook pasta according to package; drain. Serve sauce over cooked spaghetti.
Results
I was delighted. I could brown the meat for this pasta sauce ahead of time and already had most ingredients on hand. I started an audio book, My Man Jeeves, by P.G. Wodehouse. Audio books are one of the only ways I can stay focused while cooking.
I followed my friend’s directions, minus one hiccup: After I heated the veggies I eyed my slow cooker. It looked small. I didn’t save the box, but it seemed to be more of the “feeds 4” variety. I wondered what Jeeves would do. I didn’t panic. I simply slipped about half the veggies in the slow cooker, wrapped up the rest, and did my best to halve the recipe going forward.
Then I cleaned, finished my audio book, breathed in the delightful smell emanating from my kitchen, felt extremely accomplished, and dipped some toast in for a taste.
The veggies were tender and flavorful, the meat moist and the sauce hearty. The beauty of the slow cooker revealed itself: I didn’t need to be so precise. The slow cooker is a forgiving appliance, expertly blending whatever haphazardly chopped and measured ingredients I could muster. The slow cooker and I were going to be very good friends indeed.
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By the way... it's a Slow Cooker Celebration at Dinner Tool this month!
 Slow Cooker Showdown |
 RJ's Cook-Like-a-Dad Ribs |
 Jessica's Turkey Chili |
More Slow Cooker Recipe Ideas
- Slow Cooker Favorites
- Slow Cooker Ribs
- Sweet and Sour Meatballs
- Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches
- Enter DinnerTool's Slow Cooker Showdown for a chance to win $1000!
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