Slow Cooker Bolognese Sauce

Bolognese Sauce is a hearty tomato sauce with beef, onions, and carrots. The sauce simmers in the slow cooker all day long so the flavors combine together! 

When I want a hearty spaghetti meat sauce, I usually use my Mom’s recipe that she would give us when my brother and I were kids. She was nice enough and left out the olives out for us because she knew we didn’t like them. Her sauce had ground beef, tomato sauce, seasonings, and a little bit of onion. This Bolognese sauce is different and a little bit on the fancier side. Add in some wine (you can sub chicken broth), bacon, and a little heavy cream to the sauce and it will make your typical everyday spaghetti meat sauce taste 100% times better.

How to make Slow Cooker Bolognese Sauce

1. In a food processor pulse the onions and carrots until they are all about the same size and very small. You want them to be almost the same size as the beef. If you don’t have a food processor just use a knife to chop the vegetables. I think adding the onions and carrots to the food processor is so much faster!
2. In a medium-sized skillet, brown the ground beef. Drain the leftover fat. Add in the onions and carrots and cook for 3 to 5 minutes.
3. Keep the burner on and then cook the 4 slices of bacon. Drain the fat, when the bacon is cooked. Dice the bacon and add to the slow cooker.
4. Add the beef, onions, and carrots in there, along with all the rest of the ingredients. Stir well, and cook on low for 8 hours. Serve over 1 cup of cooked pasta.
5. If you use an Instant Pot, cook the vegetables with the beef on saute mode first until everything is cooked through. Add all the rest of the ingredients and place lid on Instant pot, seal, and set the unit to high pressure for 20 minutes.

Instant Pot Instructions:

1. Turn on Saute mode. Add the onion and carrots and cook for about five minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the basil, thyme, red pepper flakes, garlic and cook for about one minute more, until the garlic is fragrant.

2. Add the ground beef and sauté until no longer pink, breaking up the beef as you sauté. Add the chicken broth and allow to cook for a couple of minutes.

3. Add the marinara sauce to the pot and stir well.

4. Turn the Sauté function off. With the lid set to “Sealing” put the lid on the Instant Pot.

5. Press the “Manual”, “Pressure Cook” or “Soup/Broth” button (depending on the model of your Instant Pot) and press the down arrow, setting the timer for 15 minutes.

Tools Used

Nonstick skillet 

Slow Cooker 

1/2 cup of this sauce is  5 Smart Points, and with a 1 cup of pasta that brings you to 10. You can make it! One of the reasons that I love WW is because they give you Soooooooo many zero point options to have throughout the day so you can enjoy this recipe for dinner.

Slow Cooker Recipes

Slow Cooker Honey Sesame Chicken 

Slow Cooker Chicken Queso Chili 

Slow Cooker 3 Ingredient Meatballs 

Slow Cooker Crack Chicken 

Slow Cooker Calico Beans

Slow Cooker Applesauce

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