With over 1 million pins, enjoy this addictive slow cooker beef and cheese pasta that is cooked long and slow to bring out the best cheesy meat sauce!
Here’s a really simple meal to throw together that’s pretty kid-friendly too. This slow cooker beef and cheese pasta boasts lots of melty mozzarella cheese strings and a rich meat pasta sauce that has plenty of time to marry the flavors long and slow.
It’s a big enough meal for eight servings so there are plenty of leftovers to go around, although there usually aren’t much leftovers with this one. Though not your conventional pasta sauce, the addition of sugar to balance out the tartness of tomato sauce and other seasonings to make it extra beefy makes this an addictive combination. And with that, let’s get started.
SLOW COOKER BEEF AND CHEESE PASTA RECIPE TIPS
‣ Pasta – I cooked the pasta till al dente and tossed it in the slow cooker 30 minutes before the end. You will end up with soggy pasta if you add uncooked or cooked pasta in the beginning. And no one likes soggy pasta!
‣ Ground beef – If you’re not using lean ground beef, brown it over the stovetop before adding it to the slow cooker. Too much fat will dilute the sauce.
If you have super-lean ground beef, you can skip this step. I would brown anything below 93% lean/7 % fat, then drain away all that fat.
‣ Spinach – I used frozen spinach but if you want to use fresh instead, toss it in once it’s all done cooking and mix. The residual heat will be enough to cook them. It’s the same reason I tossed in the cooked frozen spinach last.
Cooking spinach for too long will make it tough and leathery. There’s no such thing as undercooking spinach since you can eat it raw anyway, but there is such a thing as overcooking it!
‣ Marinara sauce – The marinara sauce is mildly sweetened to balance out the tartness from tomatoes. I’ve also added some beef bouillon cubes and Worcestershire sauce to enhance the beef flavor.
It’s like adding in the flavor of 2 cups of beef broth, only you don’t have to cook it down. Do a taste test and see if you need to add more of the other seasonings to tweak things to your taste.
And that’s about it. As I said, this one is a really simple meal to throw together if you’re craving meaty pasta and happen to like cheese. Because who doesn’t like cheese!
For appetizers, the classic homemade garlic bread or these Parmesan garlic knots pair really well. Enjoy, happy cooking and let me know how you liked it or what substitutions you made in the comments below!
MORE PASTA RECIPES TO TRY
- Meatball Pasta Bake
- Easy Vegetable Pasta
- Slow Cooker Spaghetti Bolognese
- Pizza Pasta Casserole
- Pepperoni and Olive Penne Pasta
- Lasagna Roll-Ups
- Easy Ravioli Lasagna
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Slow Cooker Beef and Cheese Pasta
- Total Time: 6 hours 10 mins
- Yield: 8 1x
Description
With over 1 million pins, enjoy this addictive slow cooker beef and cheese pasta that is cooked long and slow to bring out the best cheesy meat sauce!
Ingredients
- 2 lb. lean ground beef
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
- 15 oz. marinara sauce
- 15 oz. stewed tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- Red pepper flakes to taste
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 2 beef bouillon cubes
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 10 oz. frozen spinach, cooked
- 1 lb. penne/rigatoni/bow tie pasta, cooked al dente
- 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
- 1 1/2 cups Mozzarella cheese, shredded
Instructions
- Over medium high heat, brown the beef in a skillet until cooked and fat has melted. Drain any excess fat.
- Remove beef and sauté onions and garlic until onions are translucent.
- Transfer onions, garlic and beef to a 6 qt. slow cooker and pour in marinara sauce, tomatoes, basil, oregano, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes, Worcestershire sauce, crumbled beef bouillon cubes and sugar.
- Stir to mix well and season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Cook for 6-8 hours on low.
- Cook the pasta till al dente according to package instructions. Drain well and add cooked pasta, Parmesan and mozzarella cheese to the meat sauce and stir to combine.
- Cook on high for 30 minutes.
- Mix in cooked or raw spinach leaves and stir well.
- Dish and serve hot.
- Enjoy!
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 6 hours
Comments & Reviews
I stumbled across this recipe on pinterest (I think) and just made it today. I have made quite a few recipes from there but never felt the need to make a comment. But on this one I just had to let you this was the best meat sauce ever!!! I made the sauce as directed and didn’t mix it with the noodles. I just spooned it on like spaghetti sauce. Seriously awesome! I’ll probably have some for breakfast too! 😀 I can’t wait to look at some of your other recipes. I’m so glad I came across your site!
Thank you, Jessica! I’m seriously thrilled you liked it enough to leave a comment. 🙂 The pasta sauce is a spin-off a vegetable pasta sauce I’ve refined over the course of 15 years. You just gave me the idea to include this for my next recipe!
Delish! I will use a bit less sugar next time, but otherwise everything was on point!
Glad to hear it, Abby! The sugar part is definitely a matter of personal taste, so feel free to tweak/taste the marinara sauce to your liking.
Hi there,
I’m wondering why the sugar is added to the recipe. Would it be okay to eliminate it?
Thanks! Looking forward to giving it a try.
Absolutely! I add sugar to my marinara/pasta sauces to balance out the acidity from the tomatoes. It’s just a personal preference. If you like your sauce as is, feel free to leave out the sugar. Good luck making this, Jodi!
This was delicious, I will definitely be making this again!
My son hates spinach – any other veggie you might recommend to go with this?
You could try mushrooms? That always goes really well with pasta and meat.
Any chance kale would work with this?
I think kale is a little tougher than spinach so it might take longer to cook down. If you like kale, then you should be able to substitute the spinach with it. Just cook it down and add it in towards the end. Or add it in fresh a little earlier than I specified adding the spinach. If you do try it, let me know how it worked out?
Thanks for trying it out, Krystal! I hopped on over to your blog and wow, those Frozen cakes are incredibly beautiful! That takes talent!
How many does this feed?
It should feed 8 or so people, depending how big or small their portions are. Happy eats, Alexis!
This sounds amazing!! I want to try this asba casserole for dinner tonight so I have time to run to the store for a few of the ingredients, I’m new to cooking in general lol I’m a stahm now and its all new to me, could you tell me how I could prepare this recipe to be made in the oven? I’d greatly appreciate it I don’t want to mess anything up so pointers would be awesome lol
Sure! Follow step 1 and 2 in a dutch oven, then add all the ingredients in step 3 to the pot and simmer while you prepare your pasta. Once the pasta is cooked, mix it with the beef sauce and spinach. Transfer to a 9×13 casserole dish and top with mozzarella and cheese. Bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes or until bubbly.
I know your new to freezing but I’m gonna ask anyway, lol. I hate freezing pasta because of texture change what are your thoughts on making basic sauce (without spinach and pasta), freeze and then add those when reheating
If you’re making just the sauce (minus the pasta, spinach and cheese), you can absolutely freeze it. It’s just a form of meat sauce at that point. By basic sauce, I mean everything from ‘ground beef’ up till ‘salt and pepper to taste’ in the ingredient list, just to clarify. So just add in your cooked pasta, spinach and cheese when you’re ready to eat. Should work fine! It should keep for up to 4 months.
I hate to sound negative, and maybe this is implied, but it was never directly stated in the cooking directions to cook the pasta before hand. I should have caught myself, but failed to do so and now I have a completely wasted meal.
Just a thought. Might save others this same aggravation.
That’s okay. I know you mean well. The ingredient list stated to cook the pasta al dente but I’ll add it to the directions as well for those that might miss it. Thanks for letting me know, Parker! Always room for improvement.
PS: If you haven’t thrown it out yet, you could heat the whole thing over the stove and add some liquid like beef broth so the pasta has a chance to cook. The sauce won’t hurt cooking more so the only thing that might taste off is the spinach and the cheese.
Recipe calls for Worcestershire sauce but doesn’t tell when to put it in.
Worcestershire sauce goes in with the rest of the ‘seasonings’ in step three: Basil, oregano, Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes.
Great! Thank you for such a quick response =)
Sure thing! I just happened to be on the laptop and thought to answer you quickly since you’re making it right now!
I’m making this right now and wondering if I need to thaw AND drain the spinach. I have a block of frozen spinach.
Thanks for any help! It’s smelling delicious!
Heya Gabbi! If it’s frozen spinach, they usually tell you to cook/steam it in the microwave for 4-5 minutes. Cook it according to the package directions. As for draining, you could drain it if you want to but the amount of liquid is so little versus the whole pasta proportions, I think it will be negligible. Hope this helps!
I made this for lunch today and it was really good. Husband said it was just as good as a restruant. Only thing I did different was I did not add all the pasta and I only added 1 tsp pepper flakes. Thanks!
Welcome, Ray! Thanks for letting me know how you and the husband liked it. I’ll change the wording of red pepper flakes to have folks adjust to taste 🙂
Was very good and juicy. Husband loved it. The only thing is the 1 tablespoon of red pepper flakes for me would have made this dish to spicy hot to eat. I added less than a teaspoon and it made my lips tingle. Next time and there will be a next time I will add 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes. Could add more spinach also.
Thank you for the recipe.
Thanks for the input, Marg! I’m thinking of changing the amount and notating to adjust the red pepper flakes to taste. That way, everyone is happy!
I made this for dinner tonight. It turned out well, the only problem I had was that there was not enough liquid for the pasta ? Maybe I misread the directions.
It’s not very sauce heavy but if you do decide to make it again next time, maybe you can add more marinara sauce to tweak it to your tastes 🙂
I bought ground beef & ground turkey (50% each) & will also use Whole Wheat pasta. That should cut some of the calories. I’ve found that ground turkey can be substituted in many Italian dishes (added with ground beef) and not even noticed. Like in lasagna.
I’ll be making this soon soon & I will let you know Farah. It looks really delicious! Thanks.
Thank you for saying that! 🙂 I’ve been pairing ground beef with Italian turkey sausage lately and loved the combo in the lasagna roll ups. It was plenty beefy still so it will work, especially when you use beef bouillon cubes to heighten the beef flavor in this recipe. Good luck with the cooking, Rich!