Bigfatmomma's Slow-cooked Meat Sauce

Submitted by BigFatMomma

"I wanted a meat sauce without carrots or celery in it--just good meaty tastiness. So, I came up with this one. It was rich and hearty, without those pesky vegetables getting in the way. Fiber, indeed!"

 

• Ready In: 2hrs 20mins
• Ingredients: 18
• Serves: 4-6

ingredients

• 1 1⁄2 lbs ground beef or 1 1/2 lbs ground turkey
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 ounces mushrooms, chopped
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoons molasses
• 1 large tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1⁄2 teaspoon pepper
• 1⁄4 teaspoon dried rubbed sage
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1⁄4 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 2 medium bay leaves
• 3 (15 ounce) cans tomato sauce
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1⁄2 cup grated parmesan cheese

directions

1. Saute tomato, mushrooms, garlic, onion in the butter, olive oil and molasses, until soft.
2. Place this mixture into a crockpot.
3. Brown the beef in a non-stick pan until no longer pink, and drain.
4. Pour on top of onion mixture in crockpot.
5. Pour tomato sauce into crockpot.
6. Add spices, bay leaves and cheese, and stir to mix evenly.
7. Slow-cook on low for 2-3 hours, stirring twice, or alternately, cook over very low heat on stovetop, stirring occasionally so that the cheese doesn't burn.
8. Serve over thick pasta.

Reviews

[iris5555]

I used a hot Italian sausage instead of the ground beef. I ended up adding about a tsp of Italian seasoning in addition to the other herbs to add even more flavor as I didn't add the crushed red pepper--because I don't like spicy hot sauces.

 

[Leslie]

This is a fabulous slow cooker recipe. I used ground beef, and had it cooking all day while we were at church and Christmas shopping. When we got home it was ready for us to eat, I just had to boil some noodles. Delicous and simple! Thanks for posting!

 

[newspapergal]

Absolutely delicious. This is the perfect balance of sauce to meat, and has great flavor. I followed the ingredients exactly, except I tripled the garlic (hey-we like it!) and I only had 8-ounce cans of tomato sauce, so, using 6, I had about 3 more ounces of tomato sauce than called for. I simmered on low in the Crock-Pot about 5 hours, so I didn't add the cheeses until the last 15 minutes of cooking - just enough time to melt - b/c I didn't want it to scorch while I was away. Chose for Pick A Chef '05, & sooo glad I did!!