Stephen celebrated his 5th birthday last week! It’s hard to believe, and yet it isn’t. Have you ever heard the saying, “the days are long but the years are short?” So true! So in honor of his birthday, I asked him what he would like for me to make him for his birthday dinner. He immediately answered with “spaghetti.” Ok, easy enough, I can do that! I knew I wanted a sauce with meat that I wouldn’t need to cook right when family was arriving for his party.

Enter, this amazing slow cooker tomato meat sauce. This sauce simmers in the slow cooker for the day and then, by dinner time, you have a wonderful, flavorful sauce. The only prep work that is needed is to ground the beef and roughly cut the onion. Other, than that, you just dump everything into the slow cooker, and let the magic begin! Now, for those of you who like a thick sauce with your spaghetti, this isn’t for you. It is full of texture with large pieces of onion and tomatoes. And with most things, it only gets better with time!

So the next time you have a craving for spaghetti and have a day to let it cook in the slow cooker, try this great sauce! If you are looking for a quick sauce that takes only minutes to make, but tastes like it has been cooking all day, try this one!

Slow Cooker Tomato Meat Sauce

Yields: 10-12 servings

Note: This recipe makes a lot. The original recipe says it serves 4-6 but you would need to eat a lot to make that work! This recipe calls for 4 – 28 ounce cans of whole tomatoes. I just used a #10 can from Sam’s which was slightly less than what is needed, but you would never be able to tell. Also, I’m sure that you could halve this recipe just fine and still end up with a lot of sauce. 

Ingredients: 

2 pounds ground beef
4 – 28 ounce cans of whole, peeled tomatoes
2 onions, roughly chopped
4-6 garlic cloves, minced
6 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon parsley
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon rosemary
1-2 tablespoons sugar
Spaghetti noodles for serving

Directions:

Brown the ground beef until cooked through. Drain if needed.

Drain two of the cans of tomatoes and discard the juice. Add the tomatoes to the slow cooker along with the other two cans of tomatoes, ground beef, onions, garlic, butter, salt, pepper, parsley, oregano and rosemary to the slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Mash the sauce with a potato masher to crush up the tomatoes. Taste the sauce and add sugar as needed. Serve on top of spaghetti noodles, or noodles of your choice.

Leftover tip: This reheats very well, and tastes better over time. I have not tried freezing it, but can only imagine that it would work.

Recipe Source: Adapted from How Sweet It Is

Linked to: Chef-in-training, Taste and Tell, Buns in my Oven, Back for Seconds Social, Weekend Pot Luck and Tidy Mom