Slow Cooker Ragu - Weekend Recipe

I love this recipe because it uses fennel to make a sweeter sauce.  You can set it and forget it in your crockpot or make it in your insta pot.  Leave out the pasta and just make the sauce if you want to use other pasta, but you need to drain the tomatoes if you do not add pasta.

Slow Cooker Ragu

• 1 pound 93% lean ground beef
• 2 14.5-ounce cans diced tomatoes, undrained
• 2 cups thinly sliced fennel
• 2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
• 1 15-ounce can tomato sauce
• ⅓ cup chopped onion
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 ½ teaspoons fennel seeds, lightly crushed
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed 
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper 
• ribbon cut fresh basil (about 1 Tablespoon packed)
• 1 12-ounce pkg. no-boil, no-drain penne pasta, such as Barilla Pronto 
• ½ cup snipped fresh basil for garnish

Directions:

Break ground beef into bite-size pieces and place in a 6-qt. slow cooker. Add remaining ingredients except pasta and fresh snipped basil garnish. Cover and cook on low 7 to 9 hours or high 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours.

If using low, turn to high. Stir in pasta. Cover and cook 20 minutes more or just until pasta is tender, stirring after 10 minutes. Stir in basil.

Pressure Cooker / Instapot Instructions:

Break ground beef into bite-size pieces and place in a 6-qt. multifunction electric or stove-top pressure cooker. Add next 11 ingredients (except pasta and fresh basil.) Stir to combine. Lock lid in place. Set electric cooker on high pressure to cook 2 minutes. For stove-top cooker, bring up to pressure over medium-high heat; reduce heat enough to maintain steady (but not excessive) pressure. Cook 2 minutes. Remove from heat. For both models, let stand 5 minutes to release pressure naturally. Release any remaining pressure. Open lid carefully. If desired, let stand, covered, up to 10 minutes for pasta to reach desired doneness. Stir in basil.

RECIPE THEME

Each month a theme is chosen and a number of recipes on that theme from my massive archive will be shared.  This year we have 12 new topics, different from the topics of last year.  

To find the recipes of last year, check out this recipe link or search the blog with the topic Recipe2018, Recipe2019, or Recipe2020.

 
You can search the monthly theme by looking for the theme keyword in the search box and it will pull up the recipes on that theme as posted, so look at the bottom of the recipe in each posting for the KEYWORD for each month.  All recipes this year will be tagged Recipe2021 so you can find them all.

The themes are:
Jan 2021 – Baked Items
Feb 2021 – Breakfast Dishes
March 2021 – Italian Dishes
April 2021 - Chicken Recipes
May 2021 - Appetizers
June 2021 – Mediterranean Dishes
July 2021 – Pork Recipes
August 2021 - Seafood
September 2021 - Pizzas
October 2021 – Mexican Dishes
November 2021 - Cookies
December 2021 – Gift Recipes