18 Slow Cooker Pasta and Pasta Sauce Recipes

Your slow cooker can be an amazing cooking machine for pasta dishes. To get your pasta to turn out well there is some important information to know. Lasagnas tend to cook very nicely in a slow cooker, while some pasta noodles don't do as well. Heavier types of noodles in general cook better and more evenly. Rotini, elbow macaroni and shells fall into this group. Some say wheat noodles also hold their shape better. You need to be very careful with the timing of adding your pasta. Shells and rotini should be added around 18 to 20 minutes before the end the cooking process in the slow cooker, while whole grain pasta, which takes longer to cook, should be added 30 to 40 minutes before the end of cooking your dish. You need to use extreme caution when deciding how long your noodles will stay in. They can easily get mushy if your timing is off.

Another tip that will save you from overcooking your pasta is to take it out of the slow cooker once it's ready and put it into a serving dish. If you let it sit in the slow cooker to continue warming, chances are it will continue to cook and come out mushy and undesirable. Timing is everything.

You should also be thinking about the flavor of your pasta dish. Kosher salt is a great seasoning for the pasta to make the flavor come more alive. It adheres to food better and helps the dish become more flavorful. An easy way to help your dish have a stronger garlic taste is to cut a garlic clove in half and rub it around the side of your pot before putting in the water and pasta noodles. The garlic flavor will glom on to the noodles once your pot is simmering.