Slow Cooker Spaghetti and Meatballs Recipe (2024)

I wouldn’t add the basil until just before serving the meal—the flavor won’t survive heat for very long.

Made this with Impossible meat & vegan italian sausage and it was DELISH

Made with hot Italian sausage and regular bread crumbs. Forgot to add Panko, fresh basil, and parsley to my grocery list -- oh well. Added an extra cup of crushed tomatoes to increase the sauce ratio, sprinkled dried basil over everything and let it cook. I made 15 generous meatballs. I'm always dubious of slow cooker recipes but this one is a winner. Should not have added the red pepper flakes, given that I used spicy sausage. Not a deal breaker though...

Little two spicy. If your not a fan of spice half the red pepper. Otherwise it is delicious

One further suggestion: scrap the crushed tomatoes and paste, and cover the meatballs with the NYT's classic marinara sauce instead: ®ion=all&rank=18It's quick, easy, and terrific as a pasta sauce on its own (I'll never use jar sauce again), but after the meatballs cook in it, it's out of this world.

The meatballs are very good and pretty easy, but I don't get the appeal of the sauce. For me, 1/4 cup of tomato paste was severe overkill, and only served to compensate for the lack of other interesting flavor. It ends up bland, but still too rich. But the good news is that the recipe should work well with lots of variations in the sauce. You can also vary the size of the meatballs. I made some smaller ones for my toddler alongside the huge ones, and they cooked fine.

Either make smaller meatballs - maybe 10-14 - or cook for another hour in slow cooker. Still some pink in the middle.

I've made it twice, and everybody loved it. The only complaint was the lack of enough sauce, so will try adding another can of crushed tomatoes and increasing the wine.I used an ice cream scoop to help me measure the meat for the meatballs. Helped them come out to be uniformly sized. Did not have fresh basil, so I topped the sauce with some dried basil before cooking, and the sauce has a nice flavor.

I made this, but I have an old style crockpot that is taller than it is wide. So, I took half the meatballs (I made 8 and they were massive) and froze them (separately - then combined in a bag) and kept the rest of directions and ingredient amounts the same. It came out great and now I have an even faster batch ready to go for the next time!

I avoid cooking with eggs. I substituted 1/4 cup of whole ricotta for each egg in the recipe. The meatballs were light and terrific.

I made 10 or 11 meatballs and they were large! Used ground Turkey and Italian chicken sausage. Very nice.

Used ground beef was fine, smaller meatballs would be easier to eat, increase the amount of sauce

Meatballs tasted great. Next time ill add actual sauce vs just the crushed tomatoes and tomato paste

Is there a way to make it a one pot meal? Seems like I should be able to add the spaghetti to the slow cooker

I didn’t love this recipe. For the amount of work and time it takes to make the dish, I found that the meatballs lacked flavor. I made them with chicken Italian sausage and ground turkey.

I used mild Italian sausage and made the rest of the recipe exactly as written. Cooked on high a couple of hours initially. It was delicious. I will be making this again!

really good flavor - best meatballs i've found so far on this site. will certainly cook again but will likely make the meatballs half the size and reducing the red pepper flakes.

WOW so great. I couldn’t find Italian turkey sausage so I used 1 lb pork sausage and 1 lb ground turkey. So so so good.

It was very good the first day, but for 2 people it lasts forever and a day and the pasta suffers.

Really tasty! And super convenient with the use of the crock pot. I saw others felt it was a bit too spicy. I used hot chicken sausage instead of turkey, and 3/4 tsp red pepper flakes. Spice was perfect for us. I did find there wasn't quite enough sauce for our liking. I saw that one person suggested using the NYT classic marinara sauce, so I'll try that next time since there is more liquid in that recipe. Probably depends on how spicy your sausage is.

I made the large meatballs, and cooked on medium heat setting, per one person having pink meatballs in the center after cooking on low. Next time I'll just make smaller meatballs. I couldn't finish one of these quarter pounders!

Can I use vegan Parmesan (which does not act as a binding agent)? Is there a vegan milk that would substitute effectively as well?

Never use the sausage but follow the basic recipe for moist, easy meatballs. Haven’t done the full spaghetti recipe.

I made 10 or 11 meatballs and they were large! Used ground Turkey and Italian chicken sausage. Very nice.

Halved the amount of meat but kept the same vegetable quantity (was short on parsley and used NYT mushroom base as a filler) and sauce. Tasty!

This is a wonderful dish for company. I made the meatballs a day in advance and refrigerated them. When I was preparing my dinner for friends, I reheated the meatballs (Google how to reheat meatballs). While the meatballs were reheating, I made the spaghetti. I plated each guest's spaghetti and meatballs serving. The table was already set with salad, Italian bread sticks, wine, water so there was nothing left for me to do! I could enjoy the dinner with friends.