What do you do when your twins wake you up at 6am and then go down for a nap before you have to head in to work?

Most sane people would take a nap, drink a cup of coffee, take a shower, do some laundry, or something other than prep dinner. But my wife was already in the shower, laundry was already going, and to save money I get my coffee at work.

I break down and head to the kitchen to get dinner ready. Slow cooker sausage pasta sauce to feed some hungry tummies on a busy night after work.

So how does one get started?

Ingredients
– can of San Marzano crushed tomatoes
– jar of pasta sauce (I used Lucini roasted tomato and basil)
– one pack Isernios mild Italian sausage
– one pack hot Italian Isernios sausage
– one finely chopped onion
– crushed garlic
– smoked paprika
– dried basil + thyme
– garlic powder
– salt+pepper
– Olive oil

Now let’s get started – shall we…?

Heat up the skillet and toss in the finely chopped onions with some olive oil and soften them up – takes about 4-6 minutes

While the onions soften – tear up the sausage in to small bite sized chunks and then add those to the pan to brown (I never put raw ground meat in to a slow cooker). And once onions are ready add the sausage to the pan and get it nice and brown – don’t singe it though.

While the sausage browns add the sauce and tomatoes to the slow cooker with a few dashes of smoked paprika, the dried basil + thyme, the garlic powder and smash the garlic and dump that in too.

Once the sausage is browned – 8-10 minutes – you add that to the slow cooker and maybe a few more dashes of smoked paprika and the salt+pepper. Pop the lid on and head out the door.

While your house gets filled with the smell of pasta sauce you can rest easy knowing dinner will be ready for you – slow cooker dinners are the best especially for busy parents (we enjoyed our dinner the next night, since we were kinda crazy busy the day I made the sauce).

When ready just boil some water (add some salt of course and maybe some olive oil) and add some pasta. I used some casarrece from Whole Foods. Once the pasta is al dente add it to the pasta sauce and in just a few minutes you have a DELICIOUS dinner ready for the family or a romantic date night with your wife/husband/partner.

All told this is a super easy dinner you need to add to your repertoire.

Up next – some wine reviews or maybe a Gatorade taste test after working in the yard all day Sunday.