Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce

Ok, time for some real talk. If I’m making spaghetti, 90% of the time I open a jar of pasta sauce, heat it,  and stir in some browned ground beef. It’s easy, convenient, and there are some seriously delicious jarred sauces out there.

But sometimes I want a little more – something a little different.  Something with super bold, robust flavor that’s thick, rich, and filled with tons of meat. And that, my friends, is what this Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce is.  

And the reality is that all it really takes to make this is time. There’s no special skill required.  You don’t need your Sicilian great-grandmother’s secret recipe – I’m looking at you, Sophia Petrillo. And there’s no carefully watching over a pot of sauce for 14 hours.

If you can open some cans and brown some ground beef, you’ve got this recipe whipped. The slow cooker makes this process so. dang. easy. 

And the result is a super thick, rich, flavorful meat sauce that’s great for spaghetti, baked ziti, lasagna, you name it! You can even just eat it with a spoon. 

And this recipe makes a ton. You can seriously feed 8 to 10 people. And while most of us aren’t feeding that many folks for supper every night, I haven’t scaled this recipe down for a few reasons. 

To start, it freezes and reheats beautifully. Store any leftovers in an airtight freezer container or bag and you’ve got sauce done for another busy weeknight. 

It’s also great for sharing with friends. This sauce is so decadent and delicious, you’ll want to show off your cooking prowess by packaging it up and sharing with family and friends. And you can even tell them it’s a secret recipe to make it sound super special.  I won’t tell the truth.  

This recipe works great in perfect round numbers. You don’t have any half cans of ingredients or random onion pieces leftover in the fridge. I love recipes like that and scaling this one down would mean you’d have some extra stuff hanging around that you’d need to finding something to do with.  

The other thing is this sauce is super versatile, like I said before. It’s spaghetti sauce one night and then makes a delicious lasagna or baked ziti later in the week.  

Regardless of how you use it, I hope you’ll try this stuff.  It’s seriously amazing.  Even my wife, who’s not a huge spaghetti fan, loves this sauce.  And I bet you’ll love it, too!