Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce
A rich and meaty spaghetti sauce easily made in the crockpot – it makes enough to feed an army and you can freeze the leftovers!
Spaghetti sauce always came in a jar for us. The homemade version never existed. My mom was a home cook but only when it came to Korean food, although she did make a mean baked ziti. It involved store-bought spaghetti sauce of course.
But once I started cooking, my eyes were open to the wonders of homemade spaghetti sauce. I’ve made several variations throughout the years but my new favorite spaghetti sauce has to be this crockpot version. Loaded with crumbled ground beef and spicy Italian sausage, this gets cooked in a stew of amazing flavors for 8 hours. Yes, 8 hours!
Simply crumble up your beef, throw it in your slow cooker, and come back from work to the most comforting smell of all with a giant pot of spaghetti goodness. Best of all, it makes enough to feed an army so you can either take the leftovers to work the next day or throw it in the freezer!
Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 pound Italian sausage, casings removed
- 1 onion, minced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 14.5-ounce cans diced tomatoes, drained
- 2 15-ounce cans tomato sauce
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add ground beef, sausage, onion and garlic. Cook until browned, about 4-5 minutes, making sure to crumble the beef and sausage as it cooks; drain excess fat.
- Place ground beef mixture into a slow cooker. Stir in diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, bay leaves, oregano, basil, salt and pepper, to taste. Cover and cook on low heat for 8 hours.
- Stir well and serve immediately.
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I tried this recipe for the first time tonight and followed the recipe exactly. Unfortunately it was really bland, but smelled incredible all day long. :-/ Any thoughts?
I’m sorry that this recipe did not turn out the way you had imagined. I only post recipes that have been successfully tested in my own kitchen, and as you can see from the comments here, many of these readers have had great outcomes in the final dish as well. That being said, did you season with salt and pepper, to taste? It’s amazing how a little bit of seasoning goes a long way. You can also add more herbs, to taste, to suit your preferences.
Hi! This look amazing! Would this recipe work if I cooked it on high for 4 hours? Thanks!
I also forgot to ask, would this work with ground turkey?
Yes, 4 hours on high using ground turkey should work just fine.
I “cheated” and used premade uncooked storebought meatballs since I already had them on hand. I made the recipe for a party woth the option to make it into spaghetti or meatball subs. It was a hit! I will make some today, but am out of meatballs of sausage so I am hoping it still tastes good with plain old ground beef.
My family’s heritage is full Italian so I’ve made spaghetti sauce before. My question is, why brown the meat and cook the onions (I understand why you may have to pre-cook mushrooms) before adding them to the crock. Just throw them in the sauce raw. And while you’re at it, add some nice big stock bones with the marrow in them. Great flavor adder.
Gloria, you don’t necessarily have to brown the meat prior to adding it to the slow cooker, but there are some advantages. If you crumble it first with a little bit of oil in a hot skillet, the meat develops more complex flavors. Also, by adding it raw to the slow cooker, the meat will clump together and add lots of grease to the finished dish.
Yes, you are right about the grease. You have to skim it off the top. And I like the clumps. I just think it’s easier to throw it all in together and saves cleaning the frying pan.
I agree with Gloria, just throw it all in. Give a good stir if you don’t want clumps!
Now what size slow cooker/crock pot did you use?
I used a 6-qt slow cooker.
This sauce is awesome!!!! Takes about 20 minutes to throw together. My family doesn’t care for chunks of tomatoes so I blend them down to smaller chunks. Cook it and save half for dinner, freeze the other for leftovers another night! I have a picky family but they really like the blend of ingredients in this receipe!
I’m trying this out right now. In addition to the onions, I added red and green peppers , and instead of sausage, I added two boneless pork chops. Can’t wait to see how it turns out!!!
Well I definately have to tweak this for next time. It came out extremely watery. It looks more like cacciatore and less of a sauce. Highly recommend using tomato paste for this recipe!
Janet, I’m so glad you tried this recipe! As for the “watery” aspect, I know some prefer to have more runny or more thick sauces than others so please feel free to make the appropriate adjustments to fit your preferences.
This meat sauce has changed my life. 🙂 It was good the first day, but even more amazing the next. Thank you for the fabulous recipe! I love your blog and look forward to trying your other recipes.
This recipe was great, flavor was good but it was really runny and didn’t stick to my noodles. How do I thicken up?
Caitlyn, you can try substituting crushed tomatoes for the tomato sauce to produce a thicker consistency.
What Is the best way to freeze this…container, freezer bag, space, no space?
I recommend freezing in single serving Ziplocs without any space.
Hi again, will this taste as good without the sausage and just use 2 lbs ground beef!!
You can certainly try substituting ground beef but without further recipe testing, I cannot speak for how much this will change the overall taste/texture of the dish. It is always best to use the ingredients listed in the recipe to obtain the best results possible.
Hi,
I am making the slow cooker spaghetti sauce. The recipe says to cook for 8 hours, but in the comments its 10 hours.
Please reply.
Brenda, please follow the recipe.
Just made this spaghetti sauce last week and my family absolutely loved it. Use to buy it in the jar and flavor it to our likings.. But now I’m going to make it this way everytime. Thanks!!
I don’t like diced tomatoes, is there anything else I can use? Is it the extra liquid that’s needed? Will they cook down really small?
Yes, the extra liquid is crucial in this dish. You can always crush them a little bit more before adding to the slow cooker.
How could I crush the diced tomatoes?
Ariel, you can crush them with a spoon or with a potato masher until the desired consistency is reached.
Thanks so much !! I made it last week and omitted the diced tomatoes it was still delicious but not enough liquid. So thanks once again
There are lots of options for adding liquid to this recipe! You can try either chicken or beef stock. A healthy glug of some dry red wine will marry the water soluble flavors of the tomato to the fat soluble flavors of the beef in a way you cannot achieve without alcohol. Even just a splash of water will work, though this brings no flavor to the table. Just make sure you be aware of seasoning. Broth often has plenty of salt in it already. Always remember to salt at the END of cooking for just this reason. You can always add more. It’s very difficult to remove without altering your dish.
Use a large can of crushed tomatoes! They work great and also have just a touch of texture, which is awesome.
I came across this and it looks amazing so I am going to try, but was wondering if anyone things this will work with Lasagna?
I made this tonight with very few changes and it was delicious. I am sure it is perfect as written, I just happen to read the comments and followed some of them. I used mild chicken Italian sausage to cut down on the fat and calories. and added 1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes. Next time I will add more heat. I added 22 ounces of tomato sauce, 8 oz tomato paste, 2 drained diced tomato cans & 1 undrained. The consistency was perfect! Lastly I added 1 shredded carrot for sweetness, will add two next time. My husband couldn’t tell it was chicken sausage or that it had carrots. It’s a keeper. Thanks!
Made this Saturday for Sunday dinner but, of course, had to taste test it once it finished. Excellent! I adjusted the seasoning, added more garlic, mushrooms and a bit of brown sugar to balance the acid from the tomatoes. I think this is my new way of making sauce because I’ll have to do it less frequently since I’ll have a mess of it in the freezer. Yay!
I love this recipe!! I have made several times and my family loves it as well. And everyone is right it smells great when it’s cooking.
Can I make this on the stove top?
Nicole, this recipe is catered using the slow cooker method. For a stovetop recipe, I recommend trying a different spaghetti sauce recipe.
Yes, however, stove top sauce has a tendency to burn and it’s labor intensive. You will need to at least double the recipe so that there’s a higher volume of food to absorb the heat, meaning you can cook it longer without it burning. You will want to use the lowest heat you can to just barely get the sauce to bubble. And, the part that’s the hardest, you will need to stir. THE. WHOLE. TIME.
You may also need to thin it out with some beef stock, water, or wine to allow it to cook long enough to get the flavors to blend correctly. This recipe is a good base for it, but the crock pot is a million times easier and produces a reasonable facsimile to Grandma’s homecooked gravy.
I have used this recipe on the stovetop and it was great!
I have been using the crock-pot for my spaghetti sauce for a long time. I normally cook enough to feed about 20 ppl…even though its just me :). I just freeze most of it, and leave a container out for my lunches or dinners.