Make slow maker spaghetti with homemade spaghetti sauce with meat and angel hair pasta – all made right in your slow cooker. Let the sauce simmer all day long, then add the pasta during the last 30 minutes of cooking for an easy and delicious dinner.
I had my doubts about this recipe. Not about the meat sauce. I was sure the sauce would be fantastic after simmering all day long.
But cooking pasta right in the sauce? In the slow cooker?
Yeah, I wasn’t sure that was going to work and I was terrified I was going to ruin an entire batch of amazing meat sauce. My fears were completely unfounded.
I started with a batch of my homemade Sicilian marinara and added ground beef to make it a meat sauce. I had to juggle things a bit to get them from a pan to the slow cooker, but it worked.
This was actually the first time I had cooked the sauce in the slow cooker. Usually I let it simmer on the stove all day long.
But I wanted to make sure I could leave it in a slow cooker if I had to leave. I did prop the top of the slow cooker a bit to let it vent while cooking.
After about four hours on high, I got impatient (and hungry) and decided to put the pasta in. I used angel hair pasta because it’s thin and would cook easily.
I used a six quart oblong slow cooker and the past didn’t need to be broken to fit. But I was concerned it would chunk together so once it softened enough to stir, I stirred it up to make sure it didn’t stick.
It worked perfectly! It was delicious. This would be a great way to make spaghetti for a pot luck or a party.
Slow Cooker Spaghetti with Meat Sauce
Homemade Spaghetti Sauce in the Slow Cooker
Ingredients
- 2 lbs ground beef
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1 29 ounce can crushed tomatoes
- 1 small can tomato paste
- 1 head of garlic, finely diced
- A pinch of red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 lb angel hair pasta
Instructions
- Brown the beef in a large frying pan and crumble apart. Strain fat and then place beef in the crock of a 6 quart slow cooker.
- Keep the frying pan heated and add 1 Tablespoon olive oil. Saute the garlic in the olive oil for 1 minute. Add the crushed tomatoes and tomato paste keeping the cans. Stir to combine and bring to a simmer.
- Remove the tomatoes from heat and pour into the slow cooker with the beef. Add 1 can of water from both the crushed tomatoes and tomato paste. Add basil, pepper flakes and sugar. Stir to combine.
- Cover the slow cooker leaving the lid slightly ajar. Cook on high for 4-5 hours or low for 7-8 hours.
- Add the pasta to the sauce during the last 30 minutes of cooking. Beak the past up to fit in your slow cooker. If it is big enough to put the pasta in whole, make sure to stir it around when it's soft so the strands don't stick to each other.
Check out all the recipes from the 30 Day Slow Cooking Challenge!