Note: this recipe is by no means a REAL ITALIAN sauce. This is a sauce I make that is pretty much easy to put together (in less than 5 minutes if you have frozen browned mince in your freezer).

This is enough for 4 family dishes serving 4 at a time so 16 servings (or more depending on your portion sizing and if you wish to add additional vegetables).

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons pre-fried onions soaked in water for 20 minutes then drained.
6 8 cloves of garlic crushed
2 tablespoons rapeseed oil
1.5 kg mince of your choice (I use Mutton)-you can use vegan mince if you wish
1 small (250 gram) box of mushrooms diced finely
2 bell peppers (I use red) deseeded and finely diced
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried thyme
Salt-to your dietary requirements
1 tin (approx 400 gram) chopped tomatoes
1 carton passata (the approx 390 gram carton-not the small one)
125 ml water

For thickening:
1 tablespoon cornflour
Extra water

1) Heat a large pot on a medium heat and add the oil. Fry off the mince to seal it and retain moisture. This step takes me 15 minutes tops but adds a lot of flavour.
2) Add the garlic to the mince and fry for another 1 to 2 minutes. Turn off the heat.
3) Drain off the excess oil from the mince.
4) Add all the remaining ingredients to the Slow Cooker and the mince. Cook the mince sauce on a low heat for four hours. I check up on the mince after 2 hours and give it a stir.
5) After four hours the mince should be cooked (as should all the other ingredients). If the sauce isn’t as thick as you would like make a ‘slurry’ using the cornflour and a little bit of water. Add that to the Slow Cooker and stir in. Check up on the sauce after 15 minutes. The slurry should help thicken up the sauce.
6) If you are happy with the sauce consistency turn off the heat and allow to cool before freezing.

Note: if you find your Slow Cooker uses up more liquid than mine you may need to add more water. But that’s only if you use up all the ‘liquid’.

TIPS:
If you have fussy eaters and need to get vegetables into your family diet blitz the vegetables and add them to the sauce. If you feel your family won’t like the texture you can fry off the vegetables with the mince. This gives them a more ‘fried’ taste.

This sauce is clearly awesome with and can also be used in your favourite pasta bakes, skillet pasta dishes, cannellini and lasagne too. Leftovers can be used as jacket potato topping or even to top ‘Italian inspired Hotdogs’.

You can also add crushed up pulses to add extra protein.

Grated carrots are also a good addition and hardly detectable with the tomato sauce.
Tinned tomatoes with herbs and garlic will add additional flavour.

For extra flavour add a handful of olives (rinse them first to remove extra salt).

Remember that cooking in a Slow Cooker results in less liquid ‘evaporating’.