linguine with tomato based spaghetti sauce

Is your mouth watering from looking at the photograph above yet? *grin*

Let me share a secret with you. If you do not have the time or patience to stand in front of the stove and constantly stir your spaghetti sauce (to prevent the bottom of the pot from burning), you can cook the spaghetti sauce in a crock-pot (slow cooker). Not only is it hassle-free, your hands are freed to do other things such as baking a cake! As it has been said by Da's niece (SCT), we need to multi-task nowadays.

The spaghetti sauce that you see in the photograph below was cooked in a crock-pot. I started my preparations in the late morning. By early evening, the spaghetti sauce was bubbling and emitting a wonderful aroma, just in time for guests to enjoy the food in the evening.

Ingredients (for the sauce)

1 can tomato paste
1 can tomato puree
1 can diced / chopped tomato
1 can chickpeas
1 large potato (cut into bite-sized cubes)
1 large yellow onion (chopped)
1 large carrot (cut into bite-sized cubes)
1 sausage / hot-dog (sliced)
2 crab-sticks (sliced)
1 can button mushroom (sliced)
1 pkt enoki mushrooms (halved)
a handful of fresh mushrooms (sliced)
1 can baby corn (sliced)
1 green capsicum (cut into bite-sized pieces)
1 yellow capsicum (cut into bite-sized pieces)
1 red capsicum (cut into bite-sized pieces)
100g chicken fillet (sliced)
100g minced meat (beef is ideal but you can substitute with pork or chicken)
1 can cubed pineapple
2 sticks celery (sliced)
cooking wine / cooking sherry
mixed Italian herbs (ie. oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary, etc)
tomato sauce (to taste)
sugar (to taste)
bacon bits
black / mixed peppercorn (freshly ground)


Method

1. Pour the tomato paste, tomato puree, diced / chopped tomato and chickpeas into the crock-pot and set the temperature to HIGH.

2. Marinate the chicken fillet and minced meat with cooking wine / cooking sherry, mixed Italian herbs, bacon bits and black / mixed peppercorn and set aside.

3. Cut/slice the remaining ingredients (starting first with those that take longer to cook (eg. potato and carrots)) and put them in the crock-pot. Each time you put an ingredient into the crock-pot, stir the sauce thoroughly.

4. Add the chicken fillet and minced meat to the sauce and stir such that the meat disperses throughout the sauce.

5. Sprinkle a generous amount of mixed Italian herbs and bacon bits over the sauce and stir thoroughly.

6. When the sauce is hot, add the tomato sauce and sugar to taste.

7. Switch the temperature to AUTO and leave the sauce to cook for several hours.

8. Cook the linguine according to the instructions on the packet. When the linguine is cooked, drain away the water and mix the cooked linguine with some butter/margarine to keep the pasta noodles moist and to prevent them from sticking together.

9. Serve the linguine with a generous amount of spaghetti sauce and sprinkle grated cheese, freshly ground black / mixed peppercorn, bacon bits and pine nuts on top of your dish.