Crockpot Spaghetti

Spaghetti is one of the easiest dinners to make, isn’t it? So why don’t we have it more often? Go figure.

In an effort to make a dent in our extensive pantry, crockpot spaghetti was on the menu a couple days ago. Ingredients on hand: Ground beef, red wine, tomato paste, tomato sauce, garlic (lots of garlic!), onions, and mushrooms.

I hate red wine with a passion (someone gave us this bottle), but once in a while it’s nice in beef dishes. It adds a nice fillip to spaghetti sauce. Like so many other dishes, spaghetti sauce is flexible. Add or subtract whatever you like.

Browning the meat.

Chopping onions (last loot from our last garden).

Sautéing onions.

Piling ingredients in the crockpot. Ahem. That’s a HUGE plop of canned garlic on top.

Next: the tomato sauce and paste, mushrooms, and (glug glug glug) the red wine.

Spices. Pepper, salt, oregano, basil, and just a pinch of nutmeg. Later I added a tablespoon or so of sugar.

This was very much a throw-it-in-and-hope-for-the-best combo.

Stir it up, turn the heat on low, and forget about it for the next eight hours. My kind of cooking.

The result was rich and hearty.

Hard to go wrong with crockpot spaghetti.