Use your slow cooker to make a traditional Italian American Meat Sauce. This spaghetti sauce is so full of flavor with ground beef and pork.
Don't worry if you didn't grow up in an Italian household where Sunday gravy was simmering on the stove all day. You can make your own meat sauce right in your crock pot!
We love pasta around here and this one is always at the top of our list! Nothing beats a classic spaghetti sauce.
This recipe comes from Lidia Bastianich, so you know it's good! I've been making it for years and it really is so special and loaded with flavor.
Ingredients.
- Canned tomatoes - preferably San Marzano. If you're curious about why San Marzano tomatoes are usually recommended, this article "What is so Special about San Marzano Tomatoes" will shed some light on it.
- Onions and garlic.
- Pork neck bones - not pictured because I couldn't find any that day. I have made this both with and without and with definitely has a deeper, meatier flavor as you would imagine. But even if I can't find them, I never let it stop me from making this sauce, it's so good either way!
- Ground pork and ground beef - another secret to the complex flavor of this sauce.
- Tomato paste, white wine, bay leaves and dried oregano.
Step by step instructions.
The first step of this process might be new to you (it was for me!). But Lidia has you pass the tomatoes through a food mill fitted with a fine blade.
I admit as I was doing it, I was thinking, is this extra effort worth it? It is. It is the creamiest, smoothest tomato sauce ever! Now, you could just puree them in your food processor or cut them up with scissors while still in the can and you'll still have a good sauce. But I really recommend you try the food mill, just so you can see how amazing it comes out!
Add the sauce to the slow cooker.
Over medium heat, sauté the onions until they are golden (about 8 minutes.) Then add the garlic and cook until fragrant about a minute.
If you had the pork bones, you would add them in now and cook turning them until they are lightly browned on all sides. This should take about 5 minutes.
Add the ground beef and ground pork to the skillet and sprinkle lightly with salt.
Cook the meat, breaking up the clumps until all of the liquid that comes out of it is boiled away. Continue to cook after that for about 5 minutes to brown the meat.
Add the bay leaves and oregano to the meat mixture and then pour in the wine. Bring it to a boil, scraping up all those browned bits on the skillet - so much flavor in those browned bits! Cook until the wine is completely evaporated.
At this point in time, I changed Lidia's original recipe to finish it off in the slow cooker.
Add the pork/beef mixture to the cooker with the tomato sauce. Add the tomato paste and stir it in.
Cook on low for 8 hours. Her original recipe calls for 3-4 cups of hot water, but since there isn't much if any evaporation in the slow cooker, I didn't use any.
This recipe makes enough to sauce 2 pounds of pasta. So I took half of it and froze it and then made the pasta and added it to the sauce left in the slow cooker.
There's a lot to take away from this classic meat sauce recipe.
Neck bones - if you can find them, use them, they add such a meaty flavor.
Food mill - if you can take the extra time to run your tomatoes through a food mill, you will be rewarded with the smoothest sauce.
Pork and beef - while I make plenty of spaghetti sauces just using ground beef, including pork in the mixture really makes it special.
More classic pasta recipes.
Recipe.
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Slow Cooker Italian American Meat Sauce
Ingredients
- 70 ounces San Marzano tomatoes (2 35 ounce cans)
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 onions diced (about 2 cups)
- 8 cloves garlic peeled and chopped fine
- 6 meaty pork neck bones (about ¾ pound) (omitted because I couldn’t find any)
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 pound ground pork
- salt
- ¾ cup dry white wine
- ⅓ cup tomato paste
- 4 bay leaves
- 1 ½ teaspoons dried oregano preferably the type dried on the branch, crumbled
- 4 cups hot water I didn’t need any
Instructions
- Pass the tomatoes through a food mill fitted with a fine blade and place in slow cooker. (Don’t skip this step, it’s a little extra work, but so worth it).
- Heat the olive oil in a heavy pot over medium heat. Add the onions and cook until golden about 8 minutes. Make room in the center of the pot and add the garlic and cook until lightly browned. Add the pork bones and cook, turning them, until they are lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Add the ground beef and pork and season lightly with salt. Cook them, breaking up the chunks, until the liquid they give off has boiled away – about 10 minutes. Continue until it is nicely browned about another 5 minutes. Add the bay leaves and the oregano and then the wine. Bring to a boil, scraping up the browned bits and cook until the wine has completely evaporated.
- At this point I spooned this into the slow cooker. I added the tomato paste and seasoned again lightly with salt. Covered and cooked on low for about 8 hours.
- If you are doing it on the stove, add the tomatoes, paste and salt to the pot. Bring to a boil, and then adjust the heat to keep it at a lively simmer. Cook uncovered for 2-3 hours, adding hot water about ½ cup at a time to maintain the level of liquid. Skim off any fat from the top, remove the bones, adjust the seasoning and spoon over pasta.
Brandon @ Kitchen Konfidence says
Congratulations on your retirement / new business!! I love a good meat sauce, so I'm sure I'd love this 🙂
Joanie @ ZagLeft says
Congratulations on your retirement! I've never simmered my tomato sauce in a slow cooker, but why not. It's a great idea and I'm sure it leaves my kitchen smelling so good!
Mary Ellen says
Congrats on retiring! This looks so good and I love cooking in my slow cooker.
Angela | Mind Over Batter says
Congratulations on your retirement and your new full time endeavor. Now this meat sauce!! I'm always looking for a good one. Need to give this one a try!!
Des @ Life's Ambrosia says
Anything San Marzano and I. Am. In. Holy cow this looks amazing.
Les says
Hooray on your retirement! I don't dare tell my hubby. Two of our friends have just retired and he is so envious! Hopefully, in three more years he can call it quits. I love my job at the bookstore, though, so I may keep at it until my knees/feet give out on me. 🙂 Again, congrats! May will be here before you know it!!
Judi says
Congratulations on your retirement!
Kalyn Denny says
I'm so excited for you! And retirement is THE BEST! (Of course I work on my blogs full time, but it's still a lot different than leaving the house for work every day.)
Wearinbeads says
wow just a few more months. a few more years for me. that is really exciting for you. my kitty will be so happy when there is more lap time, and I am sure yours will be too.
grace says
i'm pretty sure i would have to omit the meaty neck bones because it sounds pretty gross. i like everything else though!
Chris says
Is this another case of Common Core driving away another dedicated, qualified teacher? Ugh.
The sauce sounds awesome. Perfect for the blogger get together will is going to be an Italian-ish theme this year. Now that school is over, maybe y'all can make it this year, it's in June.
Either way, congratulations! Glad that you get to pursue something else that you love, enjoy that!
Gale Wall Photography says
Congratulations on your retirement!
KarenP says
Congrats on the retirement! I have one of Lidia's other books and everything I have made from it (especially the pasta dishes) has been wonderful. Oh, I just noticed my book has the same recipe - I will give it a try!
Joy says
AH!!! Good for you!! I am envious. Congratulations!! Thrilled for you.
Marjie says
Other than the white wine, that looks pretty much like my meat sauce. I love using canned tomatoes; it makes life so easy!The only thing I do is to cook the meat with onions only, then rinse it 3 times in cold water, and scrape the congealed fat off the top of the water. You would be amazed how much there is.And congrats on the lifestyle change! But I'm not betting on cleaning out the garage; you like your "stuff", after all.
Velva says
I am so excited for you!!! Everyday can be Saturday-More importantly you can enjoy the things you like to do most-
Velva
June says
Such exciting news Pam. I'm so happy for you.
Kitchen Ninja says
Congrats! That is such exciting news. Enjoy making your "always wanted to do" list, Pam!
Jessica J says
Congrats on retirement, you must be so excited 🙂 I just had to add that I love that picture of the pasta in the window. What a perfect window for taking pictures! Gorgeous!
Joanne says
Ooo good to know about this secret step! I've never done that with my tomato sauce!
And congrats!!
Melynda Brown says
Congratulations on your retirement from teaching, you have worked very hard to get to this point! The sauce sounds wonderful, I need to splurge and find some of those tomatoes.....
Jane says
That sauce looks and sounds delicious. Congratulations on your retirement from teaching - I'm sure the kitty cats will be delighted to have you at home more!