Gonna do a batch of pasta sauce in the crock pot. Lazy man's version.
1 lb ground beef (80/20)
1 lb ground Italian sausage (either hot, mild or sweet, your preference)*
1 yellow onion, diced
Couple of cloves of garlic, smashed and diced
Fry up meat with the onions and garlic. Since making a meat sauce, break the meat up into shards or crumbles while frying it. Drain grease. Add meat stuff to the crock pot...
Then dump into the pot...
15 oz of diced tomato (one can), drain the liquid off.
Couple jars of basic pasta sauce. Any name brand or generic brand
(I cheat and will probably get flamed for this but rather than do the cans of tomato sauce and tomato paste, I just buy a basic pasta sauce in a jar and spruce it up).
1/2 a cup of dry red wine of your choosing.
*Some red pepper flakes to add a bit of zing - user preference. If using hot sausage, no need for this. If using mild or sweet sausage, add or don't depending on your level of zing you want.
Dried Italian herbs... the all in one thingy you can find anywhere (basil, oregano, rosemary, savory, tyme, marjoram). Again a cheater's way out rather than buy each of them individually.
Toss everything into the into crock pot, stir it up and let it simmer on low for like 6 hrs or about 3 hours on high. Could also simmer it on the stove top in a stock pot rather than using a crock but just let it go low and slow so the flavors blend.
Stir and sample it periodically along the way .
Serve over your favorite pasta shape along with some garlic bread and a salad.
Another option is to add hunks of sausage (in replacement of the ground sausage). Cut up into, say, 1" nuggets and add it to the sauce to simmer with it.
