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Easy to make rich and rustic Slow Cooker Spaghetti Bolognese, with a sauce packed with so much flavour to coat your pasta (or vegetables) of choice!
Making Spaghetti Bolognese is so simple over stove top, BUT, in the slow cooker? Even better when the slow cooker does all the work! You will LOVE this Slow Cooker Spaghetti Bolognese recipe!
Bolognese
The ONLY way we love our bolognese is cooked in a slow cooker or crockpot. With meat so incredibly soft and tender, it falls apart all over your pasta.
This family recipe makes enough to freeze any left overs for any emergency dinner situations, OR enough for the next day. Just boil up some more pasta and you have a restaurant quality meal two days in a row! NO COOKING! Well, except for boiling the pasta, which is simple itself. OR, do what we do and use the leftovers to smother ALL over toast.
Um HELLO.
Slow Cooker Spaghetti Bolognese
What I have found over the years of making this sauce is browning the meat first before adding it into the slow cooker tastes incredible. I used to throw it all in the slow cooker without browning the meat first, but we had an aversion to the ‘stewed meat’ flavour.
I also found frying off your onion and garlic first creates a delicious depth of flavour.
Pasta Sauce
The sauce is so versatile, you can serve it over pasta, like the spaghetti pictured here, BUT I usually opt to serve this sauce over zucchini noodles, or steamed vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, and pumpkin when following a low carb diet or calorie counting.
The sauce is so thick and rich, full of unmistakable Italian flavours.
The addition of carrots in my sauce adds some sweetness through the tomatoes. You will no doubt love this sauce just as much as we do!
Love Slow Cooker Meals? Try these!
Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore
Slow Cooker Creamy Tortellini Soup
Slow Cooker Pot Roast
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Slow Cooker Spaghetti Bolognese
Ingredients
Bolognese Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 onions finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic minced, or 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 2 pounds lean ground beef
- 1/2 cup red wine or beef broth/stock - optional
- 56 ounces crushed tomatoes 28-ounce cans
- 1 cup beef stock
- 6 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 large carrot chopped
- 1 tablespoon stock powder or crushed beef bouillon
- 2-3 teaspoons salt adjust to your taste
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano or 1 teaspoon fresh oregano, finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons dried basil or 2 teaspoons fresh basil, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 pinch cracked pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup fresh parsley chopped
To Serve:
- 17 ounces spaghetti dry pasta
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet or pan over medium-high heat. Sauté onion until softened. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant (about 30 seconds).
- Brown beef, breaking it apart with a wooden spoon, until just beginning to brown (about 2-3 minutes). Transfer to a 6-quart slow cooker bowl.
- Return the skillet to the stove; pour in the wine while scraping any bits of the fried meat from the pan. Bring to a gentle simmer and transfer to the slow cooker bowl.
- To the slow cooker bowl, add in the crushed tomatoes, beef stock, tomato paste, carrot, stock powder (or crushed bouillon cubes), salt, oregano, basil, sugar and pepper. Cover and cook on low for 6-7 hours, or high for 3-4 hours. Add in the chopped parsley before serving.
- In the last 15 minutes of cooking time, boil pasta in salted water following packet instructions.
- Drain, reserving 1/2 cup pasta water. Pour the reserved water back into the pasta along with 2 cups cooked bolognese sauce. Stir until the sauce is thick enough to coat the pasta.
- Serve with parmesan cheese and (extra) chopped parsley, if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I MADE THIS AS WRITTEN FOR COMPANY. I AM AT THE POINT WHERE I DO NOT TRY OUT YOUR RECIPIES BEFORE SERVING THEM TO COMPANY. I HAVE GROWN TO TRUST YOU COMPLETELY. YOUR RECIPIES ARE ALWAYS AMAZING. THANK YOU.
I am in the middle of cooking this 4hours on high in the slow cooker and my house smells absolutely amazing. I cannot wait to tuck in cooking for the mother and father in law to so hopefully they enjoy it as much as my and my partner.
You never disappoint. This is delicious.
Lovely recipe but not sure I did the tomatoes right. Should they be drained before putting in?
I used chopped tomatoes as couldn’t see crushed in the supermarket.
Hi, could I use Passats instead of crushed tomatoes? Just want the consistency to be be right. Thanks!
Hi we are trying not to eat too much red meat would this recipe work with Turkey mince and should I change/add any ingredients ?
That would be fine Pam!
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OMG! this looks delicious!! I can think of about a million ways to enjoy this!
This turned out great! I browned the beef and onions the night before so I could just dump everything in the slow cooker before work the next morning. I loved how all the flavors blended together, the texture was perfect, we served with spaghetti. I chose to add a large package of baby bella mushrooms. My only change is I would either lessen or omit the wine next time, we don’t cook with alcohol often and I found the flavor a little overpowering. This was a great weeknight meal, and I will definitely make again!
The trick to cooking with wine is to fry it off with the meat before adding the sauce ingredients. Fry the beef in a dry pan until the juice evaporates then add in the wine and fry on a medium to high heat until the wine is around half to 3/4 evaporated. This will make the sauce less vinegary and overpowering 🙂
Hello 🙂
My crockpot is just 4L, can I still do the same quantity?
Thank u so much!
I would cut the recipe in half. Hope that helps! Enjoy! XO