I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to post a tomato based Italian dish like this. I practically grew up on the stuff! About once a week was Spaghetti and Meat Sauce Night when my mom would make her famous turkey Bolognese with some buttery garlic-herb spaghetti. My God, it was by far one of my favorite meals of hers!
Needless to say, to this day we still frequently go to town on some form of marinara based pasta dish, whether it be something like baked ziti or stuffed shells, it’s always our go-to meal. Three things that’s always kept consistent when I make these dishes are that they must be made with homemade marinara sauce and include Italian sausage and Asiago cheese.
Following with that theme, these slow-cooker meatballs are super easy to throw together and are made with all the ingredients I usually use in my homemade marinara sauce. Of course I had to throw some Asiago cheese in the meatball batter to give it a bit of a sharp flavor that counterbalances the sweet sausage. Then, I love to pair it with homemade fettuccine noodles tossed in garlic-herb butter.
The only thing is wish is that I had a larger slow cooker so that I could have made twice as much! This is definitely a dish that saves well and tastes even better the next day!
- 1 lb Italian sausage
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup bread crumbs
- 1/4 cup asiago or parmesan cheese
- 1 tsp. Italian seasoning
- 1 15oz. can low sodium tomato sauce
- 1/4 cup chopped parsley
- 1/2 cup onion, chopped
- 1 tomato, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tsp. sugar
- salt and pepper to taste
Skill Level: Easy
Notes:
For less chunky sauce, use 1/2 tomato, diced a 1/4 cup of onion.
Fat from sausage may settle on top while cooking. Skim periodically.