CROCKPOT BAKED SPAGHETTI

It’s about 4 o’clock and your family members are starting to get hungry and cranky. It’s time for dinner.

And here comes that sinking feeling… You’ve been away all day and you’re tired.

Dinner shouldn’t take much thought or energy, right?

Enter: slow-cooker spaghetti casserole. All you need to do is stir and toss in some uncooked pasta and you’re ready to serve.

WHY THIS CASSEROLE WORKS

• The casserole tastes like it simmered all day: It simmers for 3 hours in the slow cooker. By the time you’re ready to add the uncooked pasta, the sauce will be a beautiful brick-red color and your entire house will be infused with an incredible aroma.
• Mostaccioli pasta holds its own: Traditionally made with long, skinny spaghetti noodles, this casserole is a departure from the norm. Mostaccioli pasta is the perfect choice because it doesn’t turn to mush in the crockpot. If you do opt for spaghetti, keep in mind that thinner noodles will cook faster, so check on casserole frequently.
• Uncooked pasta hydrates in the crockpot: Chicken broth or water provides the right amount of liquid and adds another level of flavor. Add the uncooked pasta directly into the casserole and serve. No boiling or draining.
• Mozzarella cheese topper doesn’t require an oven: Just pile mozzarella on top, cover, and allow to melt for about 5 minutes.

THE SLOW COOKER METHOD – WHAT’S ACTUALLY HAPPENING

In the morning, add casserole ingredients except uncooked pasta into the slow-cooker. In the evening, stir ingredients thoroughly before adding the dry mostaccioli pasta (shown below).

Serve within about 20 minutes, topping with shredded mozzarella if desired.

Mostaccioli is a type of tube-shaped pasta that’s perfect for casseroles and baked dishes. The shape holds its own in the crockpot and absorbs all of the yummy flavors in the sauce.

My favorite brand, Barilla mostaccioli (shown below), is widely available at supermarkets.

This pasta-cooks-in-sauce method is commonly used in restaurants and gives the best results. It’s a technique where the pasta is added to the slow cooker directly into the sauce and cooks there.

It’s a great method that ensures the pasta itself will soak up the deliciously flavored sauce while it’s cooking, resulting in pasta that is flavored through-and-through, not just covered in sauce at the end. It’s a method where you can’t mess up.

While the sauce cooks for 3 hours it’s developing a super-elaborate flavor. Then, when the pasta is added, it’s soaking up all of that deliciousness while it’s cooking.

Not only that, as it cooks, the starches are being released into the sauce and thickening it further to create a dish that comes together perfectly.

You’ll be adding dry pasta directly into the slow cooker, so make sure you’ve got enough room. A minimum of a 4-quart slow cooker will work for this recipe and a 6-quart is helpful if you’d like to make a double-batch.

Using a smaller-than-4-quart slow cooker may lead to issues with the contents spilling over during cooking as well as with undercooked pasta.

Add the pasta. Remove the lid and add pasta.

Give it a stir, replacing the lid. Cook for 30-50 minutes, checking after 30 to see how close your pasta is to done.

Depending on your slow cooker’s temp you may be done in 30 minutes, or may need closer to 50. You’ll be looking for tender pasta without a crunchy center, but before it breaks down and gets too soft.

Remove pasta as soon as it’s ready. Serve immediately.

Enjoy!

WHAT TO KNOW BEFORE YOU START

Cooking time varies by slow cooker. Some cook aggressively, like boiling on HIGH, while others struggle to get up to temperature, resulting in barely-a simmer on HIGH.

You’ll be checking your pasta after 30 minutes and removing it as soon as it’s cooked, so keep that in mind.

Herbs. Use whatever you’ve got on hand.

Sauce color. Some slow cookers reduce liquids better than others.

The steam that’s trapped in the slow cooker means it won’t reduce anywhere near as much as it would on the stove. It’ll cook long enough to make sure all of the flavors meld together, incorporate the herbs, allow the beef fat and tomatoes to marry to create a rich, thick, glossy sauce and break down the diced tomatoes into the sauce.

After three hours if your sauce is pale-colored or very runny, cook for 30 minutes longer before adding pasta.

Browned beef takes about 10 minutes. You can brown the beef in the am and refrigerate it until you’re ready to throw everything into the slow cooker.

Or, you can brown the beef and add it to the slow cooker and allow it to cook for 3 hours while you’re doing homework duty. Either way, it’s a small amount of time and makes this dish SO MUCH BETTER.

If using 80/20 beef, be sure to drain the beef as it releases a ton of fat which will make the sauce super greasy. To drain, tilt the pan and remove the fat with a spoon OR place a colander lined with paper towels in your sink and pour the cooked beef into the colander to drain.

It’s important to leave the slow cooker on HIGH with the lid closed while it’s cooking the pasta. Removing the lid or lowering the temp to simmer will increase the cook time.

Consistent heat is needed for proper pasta cooking. Removing the lid and allowing it to simmer will result in pasta that’s mushy on the outside, crunchy on the inside.

Set a timer for 20 minutes and don’t peek!!

INGREDIENTS

1 pound ground beef. The 80/20 is best for flavor, though much of the great beefy flavor will be rendered out with the fat when you drain the beef.

• 1/2 yellow onion, chopped. Chopped small so it melts into the sauce as it cooks. If you chop it larger, you will be eating chunks of cooked onion in your spaghetti. Not horrible, but it’s best when the onion has melted away after cooking for 3 hours.
• Garlic. I love the brightness of fresh garlic in this recipe. But it’s not a deal breaker to use garlic powder if you don’t have any on hand. It’s one of those cases where garlic powder tastes great. Use 1 tsp minced garlic if using fresh or 1/2 tsp garlic powder.
• Dried herbs. 1 tsp each basil and parsley.

Pasta. You need 3 cups of a short sturdy dry pasta, such as mostaccioli (which is what I have in the picture at the top), penne rigate, etc.

Spaghetti, angel hair and other thinner pastas tend to cook faster than the sauce cooks down, resulting in mushy noodles. See below for more on the type of pasta to use.

I used Barilla.

• Pasta sauce. This is a make-or-break ingredient for me. You can totally use your favorite jarred pasta sauce here, and I’ve used Rao’s Homemade (best, but expensive) and both Newman’s Own and Prego Traditional pasta sauces. It’s going to make or break whether or not your crockpot baked spaghetti tastes homemade and incredible or just blah, so choose accordingly. You need 2 1/2 cups, which is about a 650 mL jar.
• Diced tomatoes. Use a whole 28 ounce can of tomatoes, juices and all. The liquid from the tomatoes is an important part of the recipe to cook the dry pasta. I’ve used both Hunt’s and Muir Glen brands.
• Chicken broth. You could technically get away with water here, but the chicken broth adds a savory element that really rounds out the dish. Use a good quality brand like Swanson or Kitchen Basics. You need 2 1/2 cups. NOTE: You can use beef broth in place of chicken if you like because it gives it a deeper, richer flavor.
• Mozzarella cheese. Use a cup of shredded mozzarella and sprinkle over the top before covering to melt. You can also transfer to an oven-safe slow cooker dish and broil for 2-3 minutes to brown the cheese if you like.

HOW TO MAKE IT

Add the onion, garlic, and beef to a greased skillet. Cook, breaking up the meat into fine pieces over medium-high heat until meat is browned and onions are glassy and tender.

This will take about 8-10 minutes. It should be cooked through all the way with no pink left in meat.

Add the browned meat and onion/garlic mixture to a 4 quart or larger slow cooker. Add all other sauce ingredients, including the liquid from the canned tomatoes.

Stir well to combine. This will seem like a lot of liquid and will look quite soupy and unappetizing at this stage.

Resist temptation to correct this problem now, as it will take care of itself in a bit. Cover and cook on HIGH for 3 hours.

Try not to lift the lid at all during this stage as this will increase cooking times. Every time you open the lid will add another 15-20 minutes to the cooking times.

When ready, sauce should smell wonderful, be quite thick, have a deeper brick-red color, and the canned diced tomatoes will have broken down. If the sauce is pale in color, watery, and the tomatoes are still holding their shape, cook for 30 minutes and re-evaluate before proceeding.

When the sauce is ready, add uncooked noodles to the crockpot. Try to coat noodles with sauce as much as possible.

Cover and cook on HIGH for 20 minutes. Stir noodles really well to make sure they aren’t sticking together, scraping the bottom.

After stirring, cover and cook another 15-20 minutes. Check to make sure pasta is cooked by biting into some, because it should be tender with no crunch.

When done, most of the sauce should be absorbed by the pasta with a thick sauce left to coat the noodles. If the pasta seems to have too much liquid left, leave lid askew for final 10 minutes of cooking.

Sprinkle the shredded mozzarella over the top, return the lid to the slow cooker and allow the mozzarella to melt smoothly, with no dry white spots, about 5 minutes on HIGH. Serve straight from slow cooker.

HELPFUL TIPS

• We found that thicker shaped pastas, like the pictured mostaccioli or penne, held up best, but you could use a thin shaped pasta (like spaghetti). Just know that these will cook up a lot faster and you should start tasting around 15 minutes. Barilla is an excellent, widely-available pasta brand.
• The sauce will seem a little thin when you add the dry pasta but will thicken as it cooks because the pasta will absorb a lot of the liquid. Be patient.
• Check the pasta at the 30 minute mark if you’ve never made it in the slow cooker before as slow cooker HIGHs can be widely different between brands and manufacturers. If you’ve made it before and know that yours runs hot, you may be able to shorten the cook time 5-10 minutes to keep the pasta from cooking up too soft.
• Give the whole thing a good stir at the 20 minute mark because this helps prevent sticking and makes sure everything is evenly-cooked including the pasta that falls along the sides and sits on the bottom of the dish. Use a wooden or silicone utensil to avoid scratching the ceramic.

Serve up this cheesy, garlicky goodness with some garlic bread and even better is thick crusty bread for sopping up the remaining sauce.

STORAGE AND MAKE-AHEAD

Any leftover will keep tightly-covered and stored up to 4 days. Keep in mind that the pasta will continue to absorb any remaining sauce so will get a bit dryer.

Add a few Tbs. of water or chicken broth before reheating to bring the sauce back. Microwave in 90 second increments, stirring in between.

The fully-cooked dish freezes well. Allow it to cool completely, then portion into freezer-safe containers or large freezer-safe ziptop bags, laying them flat so they freeze faster and stack easily.

Frozen portions will keep up to 2 months. Texture changes a bit when frozen, but the flavor will still be delicious.

To reheat, thaw in the refrigerator overnight and finish cooking on the stovetop, adding a little water or chicken broth to loosen up the sauce, or microwave.

CAN I MAKE THIS AHEAD OF TIME?

You can separate the last step from the rest of the recipe and meal-prep just the sauce. To prep just the sauce ahead of time: Follow all of the recipe’s directions except skip the final step.

Refrigerate the finished sauce up to 3 days. When ready to eat, transfer the sauce back to your slow cooker, cover, and cook on HIGH for 45 minutes.

Then proceed with final recipe step.

You can do weeknight meal prep. On Sunday, do the 3 hour sauce part, then do the pasta step on a weeknight, which is less than an hour.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

CAN I USE A DIFFERENT PASTA SHAPE?

Use any short-shaped pasta that will hold up to stirring in your slow cooker. Penne, rigatoni, ziti, rotini…you name it.

Penne rigate (ridged) is our favorite since the ridges hold sauce well and amp up the flavor. Avoid very thin pastas, such as angel hair or thin spaghetti, as they’ll cook up very quickly in your slow cooker.

CAN I USE ITALIAN SAUSAGE INSTEAD OF GROUND BEEF?

Absolutely. Remove the sausage from the casings and brown in skillet in same manner as ground beef.

Hot or mild is totally up to your preference, and Italian sausage adds wonderful spice and flavor, such as herbs and fennel. We love the combination of beef AND sausage in this recipe by using half-and-half of each.

MY PASTA CAME OUT MUSHY.

WHAT HAPPENED?

Pasta can cook up a bit too soft in this recipe for a couple of reasons. One, it can be left in the slow cooker too long and overcook.

Two, some slow cookers run HOTTER than others. We’ve seen slow cooker temps range from a gentle simmer to a ROLLING BOIL on the high setting!

If your slow cooker runs hotter than average, start to check pasta for doneness sooner, for example, at the 25 minute mark instead of 40 minutes. Remove from slow cooker as soon as it’s barely cooked through, as pasta will continue to cook after it’s been removed from your turned-off slow cooker.

MY SAUCE IS TOO THIN AFTER THE PASTA COOKED.

WHAT DO I DO?

Most likely, your pasta is undercooked, meaning it wasn’t given enough time to absorb all of the liquid. Next time, make sure to follow the recipe’s instructions and leave the pasta to cook in the sauce for the full time.

If for whatever reason that doesn’t fix the problem, try leaving the lid slightly propped open during cooking. Toward the end, turn the cooker on high, making sure to prop the lid, and let it sit for 10-15 minutes, allowing for more steam to evaporate.

You should find your sauce will thicken a bit. Another tip is to stir in about a tablespoon of tomato paste toward the end of cooking to thicken your sauce.

THE CHEESE ISN’T MELTING PROPERLY.

WHAT’S WRONG?

Some brands of pre-shredded cheese don’t always melt as smoothly as others. My best tip here would be to shred your own cheese from a block, if possible.

If you’d like to continue using pre-shredded cheese, try allowing your spaghetti to sit, covered, for about 5 minutes before serving; the cheese should finish melting during this time. Alternatively, if your crockpot dish is oven-safe, try adding the cheese and transferring your spaghetti to the oven.

Set your oven to broil and watch the cheese closely (only 2-3 minutes) as it melts and settles. This also allows the cheese to give off some of its oils and results in a nicer-topped dish.

Be sure to keep an eye on it so it doesn’t burn.

CAN I ADD VEGETABLES?

You can add a number of vegetables to this recipe. Bell peppers, zucchini, mushrooms, etc.

If added at the beginning of cooking, they’ll be cooked through after the 3 hours and will become a nice addition to the sauce. If you prefer a firmer texture, add them during the last 30 minutes of sauce cooking time.

You could even add a handful of spinach or kale along with the pasta at the end. Get creative.

CAN I MAKE THIS WITHOUT BROWNING THE MEAT FIRST?

Technically, this recipe will work fine using raw ground beef. That said, I highly recommend taking the additional 10 minutes or so to brown your meat before adding to the crockpot.

Browning the meat develops flavor and gives it a nice crust. It also gives the garlic and onion a chance to bloom and soften, resulting in a better-tasting final product.

WHAT’S THE BEST PASTA SAUCE TO USE?

This is entirely up to your preference. Different sauces add varying degrees of flavor to this recipe, so try out a number of sauces until you find one you love.

Which is the best?

That will be a matter of taste and of your household budget. But, whatever else is true, the better the sauce, the better the dish.

Choose accordingly. Also, sauces that start out very thin and watery won’t lend themselves well to getting down to just the right consistency.

Rao’s Homemade Marinara, with San Marzano tomatoes, olive oil, and no added sugar, is my pick of the litter, and it’s darned close to from-scratch marinara. It’s the one that reduces beautifully in the slow cooker.

Others that I think are OK include Newman’s Own and Prego Traditional. Classico Tomato Basil is another OK pick.

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