Slow Cooker Spaghetti and Meatballs – Use your slow cooker to make the easiest, most flavorful homemade marinara sauce and meatballs! Your family will love gathering around the dinner table to enjoy this delicious spaghetti and meatballs recipe.
I’m staying positive and can start to see signs of spring. There’s no more snow on the ground so that’s one thing. And even though we’re not in super cold temps anymore, my slow cooker is still holding real estate on my kitchen counter. Why? It’s a time saver!
Who else is still using your slow cooker?! Although these appliances aren’t really used year round, they should be. I love the recipes where you can literally dump and go. And that’s what you are doing here with this Slow Cooker Spaghetti and Meatballs recipe!
I mean, just look at these meatballs!
MY SLOW COOKER SPAGHETTI AND MEATBALLS RECIPE
I love to make spaghetti and meatballs any day of the week, and using your slow cooker creates that incredible cooked-all-day depth of flavor with little effort on your part. In other words, easily put everything together in the morning – either before work during the week or before you start you relaxing fun on the weekends – and be ready to welcome the fragrant smells of fresh marinara sauce and meatballs that evening.
All you’ll need to do is boil your pasta before dinner time!
WHAT INGREDIENTS YOU’LL NEED TO MAKE SLOW COOKER SPAGHETTI AND MEATBALLS
First off, for this recipe and any recipe using canned diced tomatoes, I highly recommend trying fire roasted diced tomatoes. These are a game changer as far as flavor is concerned. Just try them!
FOR THE MARINARA SAUCE
- Yellow onion – finely chopped
- Crushed tomatoes
- Fire roasted diced tomatoes
- Chunky tomato sauce
- Italian seasoning
- Garlic powder
- Garlic cloves – finely chopped or minced
- Kosher salt
FOR THE MEATBALLS
- Lean ground beef
- Small onion – finely chopped
- Garlic cloves – minced
- Large eggs
- Panko bread crumbs
- Grated Parmesan cheese – with a handful reserved for serving
- Italian seasoning
- Kosher salt
- Ground black pepper
HOW TO MAKE SPAGHETTI AND MEATBALLS IN THE SLOW COOKER
It is super, terrifically, wonderfully simple to make the marinara sauce for this recipe!
Into the bowl of a large sized slow cooker, add the chopped onion, crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, chunky tomato sauce, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, minced garlic and salt. Stir well to combine.
Here’s how you make your meatballs:
- In a separate large mixing bowl, mix together all of the meatball ingredients. Using either your hands or a rubber spatula, mix the raw meatball mixture until thoroughly combined.
- Form into meatballs; I recommend using a tablespoon-sized cookie scoop to scoop out the meatball mixture. This also helps to ensure that all of your meatballs are roughly the same size. The mixture will make roughly about 30+ meatballs. I placed 20 into the slow cooker, and saved the rest to freeze and enjoy later.
- Position the meatballs into the marinara sauce, and make sure each meatball is covered and submerged into the sauce.
- Cover the slow cooker with a lid and cook until the meatballs are cooked through: about 4 hours on a HIGH setting or 8 hours on a LOW setting.
That’s it!
Personally, I’m ok with turning on your slow cooker and leaving the house. Certainly, if your slow cooker is old and on the fritz, I obviously would not recommend it; however, if your slow cooker is in prime working condition, you are fine. When I worked full-time at an ad agency, I would leave my slow cooker on low all day while I was gone and it was fine!
NOTE: I do not throw my pasta into the slow cooker when making this recipe. There are some recipes online that do this. I figure you can come home from work, and cook pasta on the stove, right before you’re sitting down to dinner. I’m big on al dente and the perfect tasting noodles, so I just cook them on the stove.
If you do try throwing them into your slow cooker at the end, let me know how it goes!
LOOKING FOR MORE EASY SLOW COOKER DINNER IDEAS?
- Mac and Cheese
- Pulled Pork Sandwiches
- Cheeseburger Chili
- Spicy Asian Beef Short Ribs
- Best Beef Stew
- Chicken Parmesan
- Turkey Chili
Slow Cooker Spaghetti and Meatballs
Ingredients
For the marinara sauce:
- 1 medium yellow onion finely chopped
- 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
- 1 28-ounce can fire roasted diced tomatoes
- 1 28-ounce can chunky tomato sauce
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- 1/2 to 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 fresh garlic cloves finely chopped or minced
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
For the meatballs:
- 2 pounds lean ground beef or a mix of ground beef and ground pork
- 1 small onion finely chopped
- 1 to 2 cloves garlic minced
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup plain panko bread crumbs
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese plus more when serving
- 2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
For the spaghetti and meatballs:
- 1 lb. cooked spaghetti noodles
- fresh parsley finely diced for garnish
Instructions
For the marinara sauce:
- Into the bowl of a large sized slow cooker, add the chopped onion, crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, chunky tomato sauce, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, minced garlic and salt. Stir well to combine.
For the meatballs:
- In a separate large mixing bowl, mix together all of the meatball ingredients. Using either your hands or a rubber spatula, mix the raw meatball mixture until thoroughly combined.
- Form into meatballs; I recommend using a tablespoon sized cookie scoop to scoop out the meatball mixture. This also helps to ensure that all of your meatballs are roughly the same size. The mixture will make roughly about 30+ meatballs. I placed 20 into the slow cooker and saved the rest.*
- Position the meatballs into the marinara sauce and make sure each meatball is covered and submerged into the sauce.
- Cover the slow cooker with a lid and cook until the meatballs are cooked through: about 4 hours on a HIGH setting or 8 hours on a LOW setting.
When ready to serve:
- Place cooked spaghetti pasta into dish or bowl, top with some marinara sauce and meatballs and sprinkle with diced parsley and freshly grated parmesan cheese. Serve and enjoy immediately!
Notes
I hope you guys try this recipe! My husband and I were amazed that these meatballs and the sauce were cooked in the slow cooker!.This is definitely one of my family’s favorite dinners – and I’m sure it will become a fast favorite of yours, too!
Recipe adapted from Today.com here.
Give this recipe a try, and leave a comment to let me know what you think!
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