This sauce is Magnifico! Seriously…I can not even begin to describe how delicious this sauce is. It is Rich! Thick! Robust! Flavorful! You can almost hear the gondolier serenading you, as you lazily float down a canal in Venice.
Oh my, and it is so easy to make and ever so Versatile!
Since we have spaghetti for dinner every other week and we go through a lot of tomato sauce in other flavorful dishes in between, I wanted to make lots of spaghetti sauce for the freezer. I have two 5 qt. Hamilton Beach slow cookers that I love, that are simple and basic, which is just the way I like it. If I get enough tomatoes together again, I’ll be making a double batch. This sauce is that Good!
If you don’t have a bunch of fresh tomatoes available, you can also substitute a #10 can of tomato sauce. I know Wal-Mart sells the cans for less than $5. That’s still a decent price for this much sauce.
Slow Cooker Freezer Spaghetti Sauce
Recipe for ONE 5 qt slow cooker
- 1/2 cup diced bell pepper
- 1/2 cup diced onion (I used a little more here)
- 25 medium tomatoes, washed and quartered. No need to remove skins! Process all of the tomatoes, onion and peppers through a blender or food processor, including the skins. I processed a couple of cups at a time.
For easy reference, the Glad Ware container below holds 13 cups, which is slightly more than what you will be adding to a 5 qt slow cooker.
I went ahead and cut up all of my ripe tomatoes. Put any leftover cut-up tomatoes in a gallon size Ziploc freezer bag to save for another sauce making time.
(There is usually some tomato juice left in the bottom of the bowl that I add to a container I have in the freezer marked for soup broth)
Fill the slow cooker HALFWAY full with the prepared tomatoes. Do not be alarmed that the pureed tomatoes are pink when pouring into the slow cooker. They will turn back to red.
Then add and stir in the following ingredients…
- 1 heaping tablespoon dried Basil
- 1 heaping tablespoon minced garlic (I use minced garlic in a jar)
- 2 heaping tablespoon Italian Seasoning
- 1 heaping tablespoon salt
- 2 teaspoons or LESS dried red pepper flakes (2 tsp makes it pretty spicy, but not HOT. Can omit if desired)
- 1 heaping tablespoon dried Oregano
- 4-6 small cans tomato paste, amount used depends on desired thickness
- 1 cup olive oil
- 2 cups sugar
Once the seasoning and other ingredients are stirred in well, stir in more of the prepared tomatoes a little at a time until the slow cooker is filled to about 1″ below the top.
Cook on HIGH for 2 – 3 hours, or LOW for 4 – 5 hours.
Afterwards, I removed the crock from the slow cooker and set it on a folded towel to cool enough to put in the fridge for several hours or overnight.
Once the sauce was cool enough to put in bags, I measured 2 cups into each labeled and dated Ziploc quart freezer bag. The last couple of bags, I only put one cup in each and labeled those pizza sauce. For reference, a standard size jar of sauce is 24 oz, which is 3 cups, so you may want to add more sauce to your freezer bags, if you typically use a whole jar..
I placed all of the bags flat on baking sheets and carefully placed the trays in the freezer, stacking no more than two trays high if needed. When the bags are frozen flat, they will stack neatly or stand up in an orderly fashion. They also thaw out quicker!
Quick tip here: Putting foods that are not completely cool in the freezer, causes ice crystals to form in the bags.
Yield is roughly 8 bags of 2 cups of sauce.
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Ways to use this sauce:
- Make a meat spaghetti sauce by adding hamburger with peppers and onions from the freezer, served over spaghetti noodles
- Use in lasagna
- As pizza sauce
- Add to chili
- Add to cooked rice for Spanish rice
- As marinara dipping sauce
- Eggplant Parmesan
- Spread on top of meatloaf
Let me know what you think!
Enjoy!
Haphazard Homemaker 
Do you cover the slow cooker when cooking??
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Hi, Shana! Yes, cover the slow cooker while cooking the sauce. 🙂
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Very good! Tried some last night only thing I’m wondering if I could cut down amount of olive oil to 1/2 cup? A little more greasy than I like but the flavor is awesome and will definitely do again next year to use up tomatoes!!
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Thank you, Pam! Of course, you can cut back on the olive oil. Tweak the recipe to give it your signature twist. 🙂
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Can this be canned in jars and then proceed with water bath canning?
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It’s my understanding that with the olive oil, it is not safe to can. If you omit the olive oil, then yes it can be water bathed. 🙂
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Liked this recipe except way too much sugar.
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It does sound like a lot. It works out to about 1/8 cup per 1 cup of sauce. Just use a small amount of sugar if desired. 🙂
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I tried making the sauce this year. With all the tomatoes I was inundated with, I made salsa and this sauce. My husband said it was way too sweet. How do you suggest to unsweeten the sauce or is it too late and is the sauce wasted?
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You could add a can of tomato sauce (the 14 or 15 oz can) to tone down the sweetness, but you may have to add a little Italian Seasoning to get the sauce flavor back up.🙂
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If you haven’t froze it, in a large pot add an equal amount of tomato sauce, plus the recipe amount of dried seasonings, then stir it together well.
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Can you can this recipe versus freeze?
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Hey there! How long does this good in freezer? I am doing it right now lol about 2 hours left in crockpot! Thank you!
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Hello! According to whichever food expert you read, 3 to 6 months. However, in MY experience, if you get all the air out of the bag so it doesn’t get freezer burn, I find it still tastes amazing after 11 – 12 months. I make about 52 quart freezer bags every late summer and use one almost every week. If you can, let it chill overnight in the fridge so it’s good and cold when it goes in the freezer. Hope this helps.🙂
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Can this sauce be pressure canned instead of freezing
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I’m sorry, Myra! I’m just now seeing this. I’m not experienced enough at canning beyond pickles to feel confident giving you a straight answer. I suggest comparing ingredients with a reliable canning source. I go to healthingcanning.com (Ball Canning) and USDA website. That being said, it’s my understanding from a Facebook canning group I’m in that it’s best to leave out the oil and process for the longest time stated for any of the ingredients. That would be peppers or onions. Hope this helps.🙂
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I started the recipe not having the paste yet .
I know paste can help cut the sugar , however I feel there may be too much sugar and oil .
Besides adding paste ( when I buy)
What can I do to make it less sweet ?
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Hi, Sondra! If you find it too sweet, add an extra can or two of tomato paste plus a little water if needed to get the right consistency, and then a little more seasonings.
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Thankks for writing
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My pleasure!😊
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Thank you for sharing!🙂
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Can you chop up the tomatoes, blend them with the onions and green pepper and store it in the fridge overnight and cook it in the crockpot the next day? Don’t have enough hours in my day to do it all in one day.
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Most definitely! I have done that on occasion. 🙂
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What kind of tomatoes should l use?
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Hi, Jennifer. I just use regular tomatoes, and they work because I add tomato paste to thicken my sauce. If you use Roma or some other kind of paste tomatoes, then you probably won’t need as much tomato paste. The batch I just made, I used Big Beef, Giant Belgium and some Roma’s.
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Why do you put sugar in your spaghetti sauce? And so much of it.
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Because I like the sweet and spicy flavor. You don’t have to add any sugar.
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Thank you for sharing my post!🙂
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