Crock Pot Spaghetti Sauce - Recipes That Crock! (2024)

FAQs

What is the one ingredient that makes spaghetti sauce so much better? ›

Nutmeg. Nutmeg is the key to boosting earthiness and adding a touch of nuttiness to your spaghetti sauce. Nutmeg also has a slightly sweet flavor, which we know goes great with acidic canned tomatoes. Overall, it accentuates the other ingredients in the sauce and adds complexity.

Time Is a Valuable Ingredient

But you should consider simmering for three or more hours, letting it lazily cook away, no more than a few straggling bubbles surfacing at a time. Time plus low heat and fresh ingredients make for a great sauce.

But because there is no evaporation, the liquid isn't able to reduce and thicken naturally in a slow cooker, often resulting in watery sauces and loose gravies. The common solution? Using a thickener. But not just any old thickener will do.

Empty the pasta sauce into a pot to simmer. Then, ladle a few cups of pasta water out of the boiling pasta pot and allow it to cool. Add the water to the empty sauce jar, shake it up, then pour it into the simmering sauce on the stove. The starch will thicken and create more sauce.

Tossing in strips of basil, a sprig of thyme or some oregano can take your sauce to the next level. Although fresh herbs might pop a bit more, dried herbs and spices can work just as well. Sprinkling in some red pepper flakes, a pinch of parsley and a dash of salt and pepper can liven up your jarred pasta sauce.

Starting with good quality tomatoes and crushing them by hand offers great flavor and texture later on. The combination of butter and oil releases fat-soluble aromatics and gives the sauce a creamy texture. Slowly cooking the sauce in the oven creates rich caramelization without burning.

Briny ingredients like olives or capers are another way to brighten up your pasta sauce while also introducing texture and depth of flavor. Roughly chop a handful and stir them into your sauce while it's heating up on the stove.

The addition of butter really rounds out the flavor of the sauce and helps to temper the acidity. It also gives the sauce a nice sheen, which is a fun bonus.

Del Conte explains that "to make a good tomato sauce, you can either cook the tomatoes for a very short time or let them bubble for at least 40 minutes", because they only begin to release their acid juices after about 10 minutes, and these take at least half an hour's simmering to evaporate.

Broth-based slow cooker dinners need their dry pasta added at just the right moment — add the pasta too early and your noodles will be mushy before they get to the table. Adding dry pasta 30 to 4o minutes before serving means you'll have perfectly cooked pasta in your soup.

How do you keep a sauce from going watery in a slow cooker? ›

A cornstarch slurry is a mixture of a cold liquid with cornstarch. It is used as a thickening agent, and is particularly common in Asian sauces. As a rule of thumb, dissolve 2 parts cold water and 1 part cornstarch. Add the slurry to your sauce as it simmers in the slow cooker.

This could happen when you add too much pasta water into your sauce, and you accidentally drown the thick sauce with the starchy water (happens to the best of us). I find that this happens to me most often when I'm making quick sauces, like a meat sauce or light marinara that hasn't had the time to simmer.

Cornstarch: Make a slurry of half water, half cornstarch and whisk until smooth. Cornstarch is a powerful thickener, so start by whisking in no more than 1 tablespoon of the mixture per 2 cups of simmering sauce; stir and simmer for 2 minutes, check the thickness, and repeat with more slurry as needed.

Cheese and dairy give sauces creaminess while butter and oil give them richness. You also don't need to use a lot — these are just for finishing and rounding out the flavors in a sauce. Whole Milk or Heavy Cream: Add a splash and let the sauce simmer for a few minutes to thicken.

One of the best ways to make use of tomato paste is to treat it as a natural thickening agent for tomato-based sauces, says Arturo. In addition to helping to alter the consistency of your sauce, this pantry staple will also help to further enhance the rich, savory flavors of tomato sauce.

The trick is to cook your noodles directly in your sauce. Sounds a little bizarre, but it totally works! By adding uncooked noodles and a little extra liquid into the sauce, you end up with a simple and delicious meal made in just one pot.

For best flavor, use certified San Marzano tomatoes. Add Parmesan cheese into the sauce while cooking. Use no salt added tomatoes. Use ground beef to cut down on sodium content.

Del Conte explains that "to make a good tomato sauce, you can either cook the tomatoes for a very short time or let them bubble for at least 40 minutes", because they only begin to release their acid juices after about 10 minutes, and these take at least half an hour's simmering to evaporate.