Slow Cooker Sausage Puttanesca

Come home to a delicious and comforting meal. This hearty Slow Cooker Sausage Puttanesca is served with zoodles. The perfect low-carb weeknight dinner idea.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Keyword italian pasta sauce, pasta sauce, slow cooker meals, slow cooker recipes

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 4

Total Time 4 10

Servings

Calories 558kcal

Author Tiffany Bendayan

Ingredients

1 lb sausage meat, loose *see notes below 
2 teaspoons garlic minced
1/2 onion chopped
6 cups Tomato Sauce jarred
1 tin flat anchovy fillets drained
20 olives sliced
3 tablespoons capers drained
5 zucchini end removed and peeled 
2 teaspoons butter
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon salt

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

In a frying pan, begin to sauté the onions, garlic, and anchovies with the butter.
When they are translucent, add the sausage meat. Brown, and cook through.
Add the sausage meat to the slow cooker insert 
Add the tomato sauce , capers, and olives. Close the lid
Cook on low for 4 hours, or high for 2 
Approximately an hour before serving, spiralize the zucchini
Salt the zucchini noodles over a colander and mix them up. Let them rest for 10 – 15 minutes to release their liquid.  
Using a clean tea towel, line it with kitchen towel and lay the zoodles onto the paper. Gently blot the extra moisture off them. Get them as dry as possible.  
Put them in a bowl and heat them in the microwave for 3 – 4 minutes on high. You don’t want to cook them too long as they will get mushy.
Serve them onto plates, and add the sausage puttanesca sauce on top. Garnish with parmesan cheese.

Notes

If you cannot find loose sausage in the trays in the grocers, then buy regular sausage in the casings and split them open and remove the inside sausage meat. Alternatively, you can cook the sausages whole, and then slice in medallions and add them to the sauce in the slow cooker if you prefer. Cooking time in the slow cooker will be the same.
If you do not have a spiralizer, you can easily make your own zoodles using a vegetable peeler.

Directions: After removing the ends and the peel, use the peeler to peel long thin noodles off the zucchini. Rotate the vegetable as you go, slowly turning it with each “peel”. Do not make noodles with the inner seeds, as they won’t peel nicely and they will fall apart. (plus there’s a lot of moisture in the inner center seeds of the zucchini). Continue on with the salting as usual.

Nutrition