Take a jar of pasta sauce and make it better with this easy to make crock pot spaghetti sauce recipe.
My family loves spaghetti. It is one of our favorite meals.
I love to make homemade spaghetti sauce and have shared several recipes already including a recipe for an effortless sauce made from scratch, but you will almost always find a jar or two of spaghetti sauce in my cupboard.
A homemade sauce is usually what I prefer, but I know that sometimes life gets busy and even an easy homemade sauce can take more time than I have.
A jar of store bought sauce is also often cheaper than the ingredients needed to make a homemade sauce.
However, a jar of sauce is not the same as homemade. When I want a jar of sauce that taste like homemade I doctor up the store bought sauce.
This crock pot spaghetti sauce recipe is an easy way to get homemade, or at least semi-homemade, taste without all the work of a homemade sauce.
This sauce starts with a jar of sauce that you doctor up and cook in the crock pot for several hours. This gives it more of a slow cooked taste and I think it makes it so much better.
Can I freeze the leftover spaghetti sauce?
This recipe makes a lot. It is two meals for my family, so I almost always freeze the leftovers. Sometimes I freeze the pasta and sauce for lunches, but most of the time I freeze the sauce and cook the noodles when I am ready to serve it.
Is spaghetti sauce gluten free?
This spaghetti sauce is gluten free as long as you read labels to make sure that the ingredients are gluten free.
You also need to serve it over gluten free pasta. I have a whole list of the best gluten free pastas to buy.
Ingredients
A few basic ingredients take a jar of spaghetti sauce to the next level.
- ground sausage
- ground beef
- onion
- mushrooms, optional but really good
- jars of spaghetti sauce
- pasta or gluten free pasta for serving
More Crock Pot Recipes
You must use the category name, not a URL, in the category field.Crock Pot Spaghetti Sauce Recipe
Spaghetti sauce made easy in the slow cooker. The convenience of the jar with the flavor of homemade.
Ingredients
- 1 lb sausage
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 onion, finally diced
- 8 ounces of mushrooms sliced (optional)
- 2 (28 ounce) jars of spaghetti sauce
- cooked pasta for serving
Instructions
- In a pan brown ground beef, sausage, and onions until meat is done and onion is tender.
- Place meat mixture in a crock pot and add mushrooms if using, and both jars of sauce.
- Stir well and cook on low for 3-4 hours.
- Serve over pasta and enjoy!
Notes
If you are gluten-free be sure to read labels to make sure that your ingredients are gluten-free and use gluten-free pasta.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
16Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 188Total Fat: 13gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 43mgSodium: 297mgCarbohydrates: 5gFiber: 1gSugar: 1gProtein: 12g
Nutritional values are approximate and aren't always accurate.
Originally published February 2012. Updated October 2022.
I did this just the other day – took a cheap $1 can of spaghetti sauce and doctored it. I added in a little sugar, some oregano, some chili powder and some red pepper flakes. I put it in the crockpot and let it simmer for a few hours as I was taking the sauce to a party.
It might have been even tastier than my real home-made-from-scratch sauce. I’m a believer!
I do this all the time, too! Can’t beat the $1/$1.50 a jar, doctored up! I add garlic and usually a sweet onion to the ground meat, sometimes add sweet italian sausage, taken out of the casings and browned with the ground meat…little Italian Seasonings, a pinch of sugar. So much better than straight out of the jar!
I make a big batch of sauce every few months by buying a big can of plain tomato sauce from Costco, running a ton of veggies through the food processor(usually onion, garlic, carrots, celery, and potato), throw it all in the crock pot with herbs and spices( a handful of Italian blend and a pinch of red pepper, salt to taste) and let it run most of the day until it smells amazing and looks right texture wise….cool and bag in quart size bags for my family of 3 and freeze!
I do something similar to Kristal – take a big mountain of chopped onion, green peppers, and some garlic and saute until they are really soft and browned well, and then run them through the procesesor, brown a small can of tomato paste in a Tablespoon or so of shortening or oil, and then add back in the pureed veggies, store bought sauce and add sauteed mushrooms. It may need some additional seasoning to taste, depending on the sauce, but not only is it really good, but a lot of the veggies are incognito.
If you want to add browned ground meat as well, you can.
i do this with a small bag of store bought frozen meatballs in stead of the ground meat sometimes too-turns out very tasty and tender.
I also add a couple cans of no salt spinach as it gives extra flavor and makes it stretch farther.
That sounds great and not only stretches it, but makes it a little healthier.
How many people does it serve
I would say 8-10, but it would depend on what you serve with it.