annual vat of sauce...

I do this every fall. Normally I would pull out the 12 qt stock pot or larger (I think we have a 30 qt that I've used before...), and basically simmer crushed tomatoes w/ a few pounds of italian sausage and meatballs for the better part of a weekend afternoon. It's always been a good meal for cool weather, and then provides a few quarts of homemade sauce to freeze for later. This year, in order to manage it as a weeknight meal for a crowd, I tried out the sauce in the crockpots instead. Overall, except for a little overflowing sauce in one of my pots (or more accurately OUT one of my pots) it went pretty well. I was worried about whether or not the sauce would thicken properly since usually I rely on evaporation out of the stock pot for that so I added tomato paste. One step I wanted to try that I completely forgot about though was to add the tomato paste to the pan I used to brown the sausage. America's test kitchen use this technique to deepen the tomato flavor. They use the tomato paste to deglaze the pan after browning the meet and veggies, and "toast" the paste till it starts caramelizing. Oh well, that's what happens when prepping this late at night to be ready to cook the next morning. I used sweet italian sausage since we're heat wimps but sweet, hot or a combo would be fine. For convenience this time, I also used store-bought frozen meatballs but I usually make my own in huge batches to freeze as well.

This recipe needed 2 crocks for the volume. I used a 6 qt and a 3.5 qt.
3 lbs of italian sausage
3 lbs of meatballs (thawed if frozen)
6 28 oz cans of crushed tomatoes
1 6oz can tomato paste
1 onion
1 head of garlic, peeled
handful each of dried parsley, basil, oregano
2 bay leaves
1-2 tbsp of sugar and/or salt (optional)
2 slow cooker bags

Brown the sausage before adding to the crock pot. Divide between 2 bags.
Add the meatballs, onion, garlic, and herbs. At this point, if you are prepping in advance, tie off the bags and refrigerate until ready to cook.
Divide the tomato paste and crushed tomatoes between the 2 bags.
Cook on low for 8-10 hrs stirring occasionally.

Notes: I left the onion whole to fish out later since hubby doesn't like having onion chunks, but you can chop it if you prefer. Same with the garlic cloves. The salt and sugar really depend on the tomatoes you use. I like a slightly sweeter sauce so I'll add the sugar to balance out stronger acidity. Most of the canned tomatoes I get are already salty enough so I rarely need more. And if you like your sauce w/ a kick, crushed red pepper and hot italian sausage would be a welcome addition.

Just a few thoughts on slow cooker bags - they are usually about $2 for a package and for the time saved in cleaning for us are worth every cent! I think they are the same material as the oven bags used for roasting turkeys so if you have a larger crock, you can probably do the same w/ an oven bag. We find them really convenient because I can pack the ingredients into the bag the night before, leave the crock set up on the counter, not have lots of fridge space occupied by an entire crock, and in the morning just drop the bag into the cooker. And nothing crusts to the crock so clean up is nice and easy - a quick soap and rinse by hand or dropping it into the dishwasher, no scrubbing needed.