Slow Cooker Spaghetti Sauce Recipe

For years, we’ve been teasing my mother-in-law about the amount of frozen spaghetti sauce she has in her garage freezer. She could probably feed an army with her sauce. She makes it in large batches and then freezes it for the months ahead. Shame on me for teasing. 🙂

One of my absolute favorite cookbooks is Gwyneth Paltrow’s My Father’s Daughter. It’s charming, it’s simple, it’s healthy…it’s a pure joy for me to read. She has many, many yummy recipes inside but one of my favorites is her homemade spaghetti sauce. Now listen up…I lived off of Prego for years. I’m not opposed to store bought…that being said, now that I’ve made my own, I will never go back. It’s just so much better, the quality of ingredients are in my hands and it makes my house smell delightful. I adapted Gwyneth’s recipe for the slow cooker. This way, I can dump everything in and move on with my day. This recipe makes quite a bit, so I divide it into thirds and freeze. This makes life a breeze on busy days. I can thaw and toss with pasta for a quick (and healthy!) dinner for my family.

One last thing…the recipe calls for San Marzano tomatoes. They’re more expensive than other cans of tomatoes (about $5-$6 a can) but the quality is just so much better. PLUS, this recipe makes enough for three meals, which means the cost of the tomatoes can be divided out among your meals. It’s totally worth the investment…but I’ll never know if you skip them and use plain old Hunt’s instead :).

Shopping List

2 (28 oz) cans San Marzano tomatoes

6 cloves of garlic, chopped

6 pieces of fresh basil

S&P to taste

Combine all ingredients in slow cooker. Cover and cook on low 6-8 hours or on high 2-4 hours. Remove lid and mash any large tomatoes that didn’t break up during the cooking process with a fork. Serve over your favorite pasta.

If you’re going to freeze any sauce, place cooled sauce in a 2 quart freezer bag and lay it flat in the freezer. After it freezes, you can stack them or stand them up on their sides against the freezer. Thaw in refrigerator 2-4 hours when ready to use the next time.