The Cheater's Crock-Pot Spaghetti Sauce

This spaghetti sauce uses an already prepared spaghetti sauce with a mixture of other tomato sauces, spices, and meats to create a rich, flavorful sauce. The Italian sausage is the key to this all-day sauce.

• Ready In: 6 hrs 20 mins
• Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 1⁄4 cup olive oil
• 1  lb  sweet Italian sausage
• 1  lb ground beef
• 1  tablespoon fresh garlic
• 1  medium onion, diced
• 1  cup  sliced mushrooms (fresh or canned)
• 1 (14 1/2ounce) can Italian stewed tomatoes
• 1 (29 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 (6 ounce) can Italian-style tomato paste
• 1 (26 1/2ounce) jar  Prego spaghetti sauce
• 4  tablespoons parsley
• 2  tablespoons oregano
• 2  teaspoons sage
• 2  teaspoons marjoram
• 2  teaspoons rosemary
• 1  teaspoon bay leaf
• 1  tablespoon garlic powder
•  salt, to taste
•  pepper, to taste
• 1⁄8 cup sugar

Directions

1. Cut each sausage into bite size pieces.
2. In one sauce pan, heat olive oil and garlic.Add sausage, the onion, and the mushrooms. Cover until sausage begins to brown.
3. In another pan, begin to brown ground beef. Cut amount of spices in half and divide between the two meat mixtures. (Ex: 1 tablespoon parsley to each meat mixture, 1/2 tablespoon oregano to each mixture, etc.).
4. While meats continue to cook, in crock pot combine Italian stewed tomatoes, Italian herbed tomato paste, plain spaghetti sauce, and flavored spaghetti sauce. Add remaining parsley, oregano, sage, marjoram, garlic powder, rosemary, and bay leaves to tomato mixture. Salt and pepper to your liking. Add 1/8 cup sugar*.
5. When meats are completely cooked, mix them both into the crock pot with the tomato mixture. Set crock pot for 6 or 8 hours. Let sit all day. Serve over pasta.
6. **I only use 1/8 cup of sugar because I do not like my spaghetti sauce particularly sweet. You may need to adjust this amount; sugar can be added several hours after beginning the sauce, so you can add as you go a long.