Copycat Olive Garden meat sauce
This delicious three meat sauce with fresh ingredients is cooked in a slow cooker for maximum flavor. The result of this meaty sauce is a smooth and buttery flavor, perfect for topping any pasta or rice dishes!
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound ground beef
- 1/2 pound ground Italian sausage mild or hot
- 1 cup pepperoni finely diced
- 1/3 cup diced carrots
- 3 minced garlic cloves
- 2/3 cup onion white or yellow
- 1/4 cup diced celery (optional)
- 1 1/2 cup diced tomato (see note below)
- 1 1/2-2 tablespoons finely diced fresh herbs or Italian seasoning (see note below)
- 6 ounces tomato paste
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
Instructions
- Brown the sausage and ground beef together. Once the meat is cooked through, remove it from the heat and drain the excess grease. Place the browned beef and sausage mixture into a 3-4 quart crockpot along with minced pepperoni.
- Add carrots, celery, onion, tomato, minced garlic and freshly diced herbs to the meat mixture in the crockpot.
- Combine the tomato paste and water along with salt (or you can add salt to taste later, once the sauce has cooked). Pour the tomato sauce mixture over the meat, veggies and herbs in the crockpot. Stir all together to combine and then cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours. *See notes below.
Notes
Use well ripened tomatoes in this recipe so that the sauce has enough juice to get to the perfect consistency. If the sauce is too thick after being cooked in the crockpot, you can also add a little water or tomato juice to get the preferred consistency.
I prefer to use a blend of diced, fresh basil, oregano, parsley and thyme for the herb mixture. You can also add sage or subtract from the list if you wish. Italian seasoning is a great substitute if you do not have fresh herbs on hand, but should be added to taste.
Additional notes and step by step photos below.
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