Crock Pot Spaghetti

Just because I am recovering from surgery, does not mean I am not cooking or creating new recipes.  On the contrary, I am adding new crock pot recipes since crock pot cooking is the easiest anyway and especially now. I am still trying to incorporate as large a variety of whole foods as possible, thus playing with new ideas for recipes.

This was an idea from quite some time ago after successfully trying crock pot Alfredo.  That success opened the door to all sorts of pasta recipes in the crock pot.  I first tried the spaghetti before surgery and it was fine, but not really the way I wanted it.  So, the second attempt was today and turned out much better.

I make my own spaghetti sauce and Italian sausage and used those for this recipe, thus am including these recipes as well.

Crock Pot Spaghetti

Spaghetti sauce (see recipe below)
1 10-ounce package of frozen chopped spinach
1 pound Italian sausage (see recipe below)
6 ounces additional water
~1/4 cup olive oil (I did not measure, but just poured)
~6 ounces Parmesan (I did not measure)
1 package (13.5 ounces, I think) whole wheat spaghetti

I did not make the sauce in advance, I just dumped all of the ingredients (except salt) in the crock pot, added a frozen block of spinach, frozen pre-cooked Italian sausage and let the frozen items thaw and cook and the sauce simmer to allow flavors to blend.  I then added the olive oil, then the Parmesan and let that melt.  When it was nearing time to eat, I added the spaghetti and let that cook until tender.  For angel hair spaghetti it only took maybe 15 minutes to cook?  I was not keeping track.

This was really, really good!  The previous time I did not add cheese and I used chicken instead of Italian sausage.  It was good, but not as full of flavors.

Spaghetti Sauce

2 6-ounce cans tomato paste
3 cans water
2 teaspoons onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon celery seed
salt to taste (start with 1/2 teaspoon)

Combine all ingredients and simmer ~30 minutes (either on the stove or in the microwave).

Italian Sausage

1 pound ground turkey
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon salt (try less)
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon ground fennel
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon thyme
1/16 teaspoon cayenne

Mix all ingredients together, brown and drain.


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