These are a few of my favorite things… red wine. pasta. crushed red pepper. garlic bread!
Ohmygoodness, I just concocted the best less-than-5-minutes-of-effort-needed pasta sauce!! I am SO not the semi-homemade type. If I am going to cook it, I am usually going to go alltheway, or noneoftheway. This dish might have just converted me. You MUST try it. Please. Thank you!
So, I had some ground sirloin that needed to be cooked. Seeing as how there was no one home but me and a non-solid-food-eating baby, I needed to come up with something that would at least keep until, if not taste better by, the next day. Owing to said non-solid-food-eating baby, who is also a very miserable not-feeling-good baby who needs constant comforting, I also needed to come up with something that required minimal effort.
What I found was a jar of store-brand Artichoke Pesto Tomato Sauce that I had bought a while ago, because it was on sale and sounded fun and different. By the way, I NEVER buy store-brand anything. Ask my husband. In fact, ask my mom, dad, brother, sister-in-law, or anyone else who knows me! It’s a thing I have. I know. It’s weird.
Anyways, here is the result of my ingredients that had to be used and my desire need to cook relatively hands-free. I loved it, and from now on, I am converted and will be buying only store-brand ingredients and cooking the semi-homemade way. Just kidding! I won’t be doing any of that, but I will be keeping these ingredients on hand (oh wait - I already do!), so I can throw together this sauce at any time!
Slow Cooker Pasta Sauce
Ingredients:
1 lb uncooked ground beef (whatever you amount you have on hand!)
1 jar of your favorite pasta sauce
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
(yep 1-tsp! We like it spicy. Adjust accordingly!)
1 good splash red wine
(please use what you are going to have with dinner.
It will make the whole meal better… I promise!)
Directions:
Place the ground beef in the bottom of your crockpot and break it into chunks with a fork. Pour the rest of the ingredients over the beef. Turn it on low. Walk away.
Seriously… it’s that easy! Of course you could do all this on the stove… but why would you?! Unless of course you don’t have a slow-cooker, in which case you should jump in your car this minute and go get one. You won’t regret it! My slow-cooker is one of my best friends.
When the meat is no longer pink, or after up to 8 hours, serve this sauce with your favorite cooked pasta (we like penne) and some crusty garlic bread. Oh, and don’t forget that glass of wine!
Speaking of garlic bread… I found this recipe for The Pioneer Woman’s cheesy garlic bread, and it completely stole the show! Of course. I could have easily eaten the whole loaf. But I didn’t. Not that I would admit it if I did! ;o)
