How to Make Crock Pot Spaghetti Sauce {Homemade Marinara Recipe} - My Frugal Adventures (2024)
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Here is a great recipe for summer and really for the craziness that fall brings as well.
Have you ever tried making your own marinara sauce in the crock pot? It just requires tossing in a few ingredients, set it to low for 6 hours and you will have a ton of yummy marinara to pop in the freezer for quick dinners.
I like this recipe because you can customize it to the flavors you like and you will know precisely what is going into your food. This is perfect for clean eating diets because there is nothing but goodness going into the slow cooker.
Plus this recipe is so adaptable- it is a great way to use up stray veggies in your fridge. I like to put lots of veggies in this recipe that my family might not otherwise eat so that is one more bonus.
Now this can be adapted to any flavors you like but here is a basic recipe that I use. There are several ingredients listed and please note you really don’t need to buy a bunch of stuff. As long as you have garlic, the tomato products, and Italian seasonings (oregano, basil etc..) you are pretty much there. I like to cram extra veggies in so I added several other things I had on hand.
In the past I have added mushrooms, red peppers, eggplant, broccoli– the sauce has turned out to be delicious every time and best of all I don’t hear one person complain at the dinner table. (Booyah!)
Quick and easy slow cooker marinara sauce. Makes plenty of sauce to pop in the freezer for quick and healthy weeknight meals. Adapt this recipe to whatever flavors you like or whatever you have on hand. Perfect with almost any Italian dish!
Ingredients
2 cans Peeled Tomatoes or Diced Tomatoes (28 oz each)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
Fresh or Dried Basil Leaves
Salt
Pepper
4-6 cloves garlic
¼ cup diced onion
1 tablespoon dried oregano (or fresh if you prefer)
½ cup diced green pepper
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
½ cup diced carrots
½ cup diced celery
1 bay leaf
Instructions
Add 2 cans of whole peeled tomatoes or diced tomatoes to a crock pot.
If you use whole peeled try to mush them up a bit with your hands.
Add 2 tablespoons tomato paste
Add 4 to 6 cloves of minced garlic (according to your taste)
Add onion, celery, carrots and green pepper
Mix in red pepper flakes, one bay leaf and oregano.
Roughly chop or tear fresh basil leaves and season well with salt and pepper;.
Let simmer on low for about 6 hours.
Discard the bay leaf.
Remove sauce from heat and add to a food processor until you get the consistency you like.
So you should get a ton of sauce from this recipe and you can pop it into a freezer bag (fill it and lay flat until the sauce is cool and then stack in the freezer) or I prefer the little plastic Ball Jar freezer cups.
Pull this out for a quick meal- pasta, Calzones, spread it on french bread with cheese for a fast lunch, homemade pizzas, use it as a dipper for garlic bread, serve with roasted eggplant or try this simple roasted Eggplant sandwich.
This is perfect if you need to drop off a meal to a new mom or a sick friend. Just add a great box of pasta, a hunk of Parmesan cheese, fresh bread from the bakery and a simple green salad. You have a meal that is comforting and easy for the person to put together and looks like you put in a lot of effort.
Here is what my yield was for the recipe above. I am going to guess roughly (4) 12oz jars or so of sauce. I keep a mason jar in the fridge for dinners this week and then the freezer jars in different sizes for meals later.
A lot of people swear by San Marzano tomatoes but I just used the salted variety from Trader Joes. These are only $1.49 each and all the other ingredients I actually had on hand. So this is a very inexpensive recipe for the quality you will get!
You should get about 4 mason jars of pasta sauce. Sometimes I cut the recipe in half and I get 2 full jars from that.
A few notes:
The carrots will add a sweetness to your sauce so be careful with how much you add. I have done an entire cup of carrots in the past and found the sauce a little sweet.
The tomato paste will thicken your sauce so if it appears to be too thin for your taste, add a little more tomato paste.
And here are a few other recipes you might enjoy:
Homemade Blender Salsa- so easy and sooooo good!
Homemade Almond Butter— this is a staple in our house. Healthy and a million times better then the stuff you buy at the store.
While tomatoes are naturally robust and subtly acidic, which is perfect for a rich sauce, marinaras can lack a bit of depth in their flavor profile. If you've noticed this in your own marinara batches, adding black pitted olives may do the trick.
This is also why folks often use the terms marinara sauce and spaghetti sauce as one in the same. They are similar, spaghetti sauce is essentially a version of a marinara sauce. Spaghetti sauce usually contains added ingredients such as ground beef to make a bolognese sauce.
What is the difference between spaghetti sauce and marinara sauce? Spaghetti sauce is a tomato-based sauce that is typically made with ground beef or sausage. Marinara sauce, on the other hand, is a tomato-based sauce that typically contains seafood or vegetables.
An especially effective option with a low risk is tomato paste. Brown a tablespoon or so in olive oil in your pot or skillet before adding the sauce to simmer or reheat. Anchovies, or anchovy paste, are another umami-rich ingredient, so try cooking a few minced fillets or a teaspoon or so of paste into the sauce.
You'll need only five basic pantry ingredients to make this delicious marinara sauce: good canned tomatoes, onion, garlic, dried oregano and olive oil. That's it! This marinara is exceptionally easy to make, too, so it's perfect for busy weeknights.
Though you could use any tomato, Roma and other paste tomatoes — with meaty texture with little to no seeds — are said to develop the best flavor when cooked down into a delicious sauce.
While the two sauces share many ingredients, the main difference is in the consistency and depth of flavor. Marinara is brighter, thinner, and more tomato forward than tomato sauce. Tomato sauce is thicker, creamier, and bears some similarity with gravy, hence why some Italians call it “Sunday gravy”.
Similar to creamy sauces like Alfredo, or meaty sauces like ragu, tomato sauce is naturally low in fat, and as a result, sometimes becomes too thick and too starchy when it's been tossed with pasta. The addition of butter helps to loosen and emulsify the sauce, making it smooth and creamy.
“I think mostly it's a geographical thing, with Jersey Italians preferring gravy whereas New Yorkers and people on Long Island saying sauce. The sources that I used in my book were from 1900-1940, and invariably the word sauce is used and very rarely did I encounter the word gravy.
Here's the gist: the two ways Italians say “sauce” in Italian are salsa and/or sugo. Both words translate as “sauce” but never as “gravy.” Ragù doesn't even translate as “gravy” but comes close enough since it involves meat which is what people really mean when they say “gravy” (my personal opinion).
But sometimes it's just too watery. In most cases, the reason is that it hasn't been simmered long enough. You see, fresh tomatoes contain a lot of liquids, which are released during cooking. And if you don't give them time to evaporate, your sauce will be diluted.
Lemons are a flavor enhancer just like salt but without all the sodium. A fresh squeeze brings out the acidity of the tomatoes and enhances the flavor of the noodles, making the entire dish more savory.
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.
Vodka does alter the flavor of the sauce in a pleasing way. It adds a touch of heat and a bit of a sharp bite that help balance out the sweetness of the tomatoes and the cream.
Introduction: My name is Margart Wisoky, I am a gorgeous, shiny, successful, beautiful, adventurous, excited, pleasant person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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Homemade Almond Butter— this is a staple in our house. Healthy and a million times better then the stuff you buy at the store.
