Your slow cooker does most of the work to make this rich garlic meat sauce.
SERVINGS: 8
SERVING SIZE: 1⅓ cup sauce (376 grams)
PREP TIME: 15 minutes
COOKING TIME: 4 to 8 hours
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons (28 milliliters) olive oil
- 1 large sweet onion, diced
- 12 peeled garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1½ pounds 96% lean ground beef
- ½ pound sweet Italian sausage
- 28-ounce can whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes with juice
- 15-ounce (444 milliliters) can no-salt-added tomato sauce
- 12-ounce can tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon (18 milliliters) Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt (optional)
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 tablespoons fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Instructions
- In a large skillet, heat butter and olive oil over medium-high heat until melted.
- Add onion and garlic and sauté 2 minutes, stirring often. Transfer to slow cooker.
- In the same skillet, add ground beef and sausage and cook over medium-high heat until browned, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain fat, then place meat mixture in slow cooker.
- In the slow cooker, add tomatoes with juice, tomato sauce, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, salt, sugar, Italian seasoning, pepper and bay leaves. Stir to combine. Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.
- Remove bay leaves and top sauce with parsley. Serve over your favorite pasta noodles.
NUTRITION PER SERVING: 316 calories, 15g total fat, 5g saturated fat, 73mg cholesterol, 649mg sodium, 24g carbohydrate, 5g fiber, 13g sugar, 25g protein, NA potassium, NA phosphorus
Jen Plaggemars is a registered dietitian and private chef based in Holland, MI, and owner of Chef Jen LLC. She blogs at chefjen.com.