Crockpot Spaghetti Sauce

Nothing, but nothing beats homemade spaghetti sauce and this crockpot spaghetti sauce recipe makes it so easy you can have it any night of the week. You’ll be blown away by how amazing this smells as it slowly simmers away!

Crockpot Spaghetti Sauce

I know you can buy spaghetti sauce very inexpensively at the grocery store, but it pales in comparison to this hearty, perfectly seasoned, wholesome, delicious homemade sauce. Imagine coming home to a simmering, fragrant cauldron of homemade sauce. Cook your pasta, make some garlic bread and a salad, and you’re done!

Spaghetti sauce (in crock pot) may change the way you do pasta night. There really is no jarred commercial sauce that can compare to the sensory experience this sauce provides.

As it bubbles away slowly on the counter in your handy dandy slow cooker, you can do what needs to be done! Work, putter around your house, help the kids with homework, train your dog; you name it.

But be forewarned! It smells so good while it cooks, you may want to find jobs to do outside so you don’t nibble constantly and ruin your supper.

Spaghetti Sauce in the Crockpot

There are about as many styles of crock pots out there as there are styles of cooks, and just about any one of them that is large enough ought to do the job here. This old fashioned, large, relatively inexpensive slow cooker is my personal favourite.

My slow cooker doesn’t need bells and whistles. It just needs to be big!

Keep in mind that recipe is a great one for doubling if you have a crockpot with the capacity to hold it all. Since it’s cooking for four to six hours, you may as well make more than one meal’s worth!

Simply divide any sauce you don’t plan to eat in a day or two into meal sized portions and freeze. When you’re in need of a quick meal, you’ll be so glad you did.

Cooking Pasta Sauce in the Slow Cooker

To make this easy slow cooker spaghetti sauce, you’ll need these ingredients:

• Ground beef
• Italian sausage
• Onion
• Garlic
• Diced tomatoes in juice
• Tomato sauce
• Crushed tomatoes
• Tomato paste
• Bell pepper
• Water
• Worcestershire sauce, Soy sauce, or Fish sauce
• Italian seasoning
• Kosher salt
• MSG (like Accent), optional
• Sugar, optional if you prefer sweeter sauce
• Fresh herbs, optional

The recipe calls for both ground beef and Italian sausage, but honestly, you can substitute all ground beef, all Italian sausage, or any combination of the meats. I’ve made it just about every which way, including using ground turkey when I was out of the other options and it’s always crave-worthy.

When it comes to the Italian sausage, you have more choices to make, too. You can opt for bulk raw Italian sausage, raw sausage links, or fully cooked links. Pork or chicken based Italian sausage work equally well, too.

The only thing to keep in mind is raw bulk or link Italian sausage will be browned along with the ground beef (the links will be cut into coins first) whereas fully cooked sausage will be added directly to the crockpot with the other ingredients.

You can use Worcestershire, Soy Sauce, or Fish Sauce in this recipe; just add what you have available. Any of the three will add some serious umami to the party.

Likewise, a little shake of monosodium glutamate will up the savoury quotient in the recipe. This is often sold under the brand name “Accent”. This is optional, but I always use it!

Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce

Cook the ground beef, sausage, onions, and garlic together until no pink remains in the meat. It does not need to be fully brown, just cooked through. Drain fat away as much as possible.

Add the cooked meat mixture along with the remaining ingredients (except for optional fresh herbs) to the crock pot.

Cook on High for 4 hours or low for 6-8 hours. Taste the sauce and adjust salt if needed.

If using fresh herbs, stir it into the sauce just before serving.

Serve over pasta prepared to “al dente” according to package instructions. See notes for tips.

You can choose to use either Italian sausage links or bulk Italian sausage. If using the bulk sausage, break it up with the ground beef as you cook it. If using raw links, cut them into coin shapes and brown along with the ground beef. If using fully cooked links, cut into coins and add them directly to the crockpot without browning them.

Do not add oil to the water for cooking your pasta. Also, do not rinse it when it is done cooking. These steps will help the sauce stick to the cooked pasta.

If you want to add fresh herbs, do so right before serving.

You can divide leftover crockpot spaghetti sauce into meal sized portions and freeze for later use. For best results and texture, do not freeze with pasta.

Crock Pot Recipes Family Friendly

Family friendly crock pot recipes abound here because they are one of the easiest ways to get a nutritious and satisfying meal that everyone will love on the table with limited effort. Crockpot Spaghetti Sauce is just the start!

Jack Daniels Pulled Pork is my go-to; it’s a reliable, easy recipe for the best pulled pork ever. Budget-friendly succulent pork shoulder slow cooks in Jack Daniels forming an irresistible whiskey bbq sauce.

Sweet, tangy, spicy, garlicky, gingery with a velvety sauce and tender chicken, this slow cooker honey sesame chicken is just so very good.

Tender, garlicky Chipotle Barbacoa is the copycat recipe everyone loves! This smoky, fall-apart-tender beef cooks up to perfection in the slow cooker and is easily adjustable to suit anyone’s spiciness preference.

Flavourful Mojo Pork or Cuban Roast Pork has been one of the most popular recipes published on Foodie with Family since it first went live in 2009, and for good reason. Fragrant, garlicky, crispy-edged yet succulent, this mouth-watering pork is as easy to make as it is wonderful and habit forming.

Gentle sweetness from honey brings out the best of the tasty heat from Sriracha in this great Slow-Cooker Honey Sriracha Barbecue Chicken. Pile the chicken high on sandwiches topped with a cucumber, cilantro salad, and a fried egg ~or~ on a tossed salad, in tacos or on a chicken fajita or barbecue pizza.

Don’t forget your crock pot can do breakfast, snacks, and drinks for you, too!

Fragrant, slightly sweet Slow-Cooker Blueberry Coconut Vanilla Granola. That’s right! Granola made entirely in the slow-cooker without heating your kitchen!

This slow-cooker mulled apple cider slow-simmers with cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, and vanilla plus a little lemon to accentuate the apple, and is sweetened just enough with maple syrup. It’s the best mulled cider you’ll ever have and you’ll want it for all your fall gatherings.

Snacks don’t get much easier or tastier than this Spicy Bacon Corn Dip. Toss all the ingredients in a slow-cooker and 2 hours later, you have a dip bursting with flavourful sweet corn, crispy bacon, spicy jalapenos, and green onions all enrobed in a creamy cheese sauce.