Winter

Slow Cooker Bolognese Sauce with Pappardelle

by:
February 17, 2014
4.7
7 Ratings
Slow Cooker Bolognese Sauce with Pappardelle
  • Serves 6-8
Author Notes

There’s something about a slow cooked homemade Bolognese sauce. The slow cooking process really allows the flavors to develop, meld together and creates an incredible pairing for pasta and crusty bread. If you’ve never made a slow cooked Bolognese sauce, you need to try this. I adapted this recipe from The Cooking Channel and a lot of the comments stated that the sauce was too bland so my secret ingredient for this Bolognese sauce was adding anchovy paste. The anchovy paste adds a wonderful flavor and, the best part, you can use less salt. —Hipfoodiemom

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 large carrot, finely chopped
  • 2-3 celery stalks, finely chopped
  • 1 medium sized yellow onion, finely chopped
  • 1 pinch kosher salt
  • freshly cracked pepper, to taste
  • 3 tablespoons tomato paste
  • 1/2 teaspoon anchovy paste
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 cup Hearty Burgundy or your fave dry red wine
  • 2/3 cup heavy cream
  • 2 28 oz. cans crushed tomatoes
  • 1/2 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes
  • 1 pound lean ground beef
  • 1 pound Spicy Italian sausage; casings removed and chopped
  • Cooked Pappardelle pasta for serving
  • freshly grated parmesan cheese
  • fresh parsley for garnish
Directions
  1. Heat the oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, carrots, celery and onions. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook about 3 minutes. Add the tomato paste, anchovy paste, thyme and nutmeg, and continue cooking until the vegetables have softened and started to brown, for about 2 minutes. Deglaze with the wine, pulling up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Season with just a touch more salt and pepper if needed.
  2. Carefully pour into the slow cooker. Stir in the heavy cream, tomatoes and red chili pepper flakes. Using your hands, crumble in the uncooked ground beef and Italian sausage pieces and stir the meat well so as to incorporate into the sauce. Make sure there are no large clumps of meat in the sauce. Cover and cook on high for 4 to 6 hours or on low for 8 to 10 hours. Skim the accumulated grease from the surface before serving.
  3. Serve over pasta and garnish with freshly grated parmesan cheese and parsley.
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3 Reviews

Linda D.
Linda D. October 18, 2021
This was absolutely delicious and plenty of leftovers. Thank you!
 
Marcellene
Marcellene October 14, 2016
This was absolutely fantastic - my only change (out of necessity) was using chopped bacon instead of the sausage. I sautéed that with the vegetables at the beginning. My teenage boys loved it!
 
Karen B.
Karen B. February 21, 2015
This makes a terrific sauce, and plenty of it, without a lot of fuss.