Most of us use slow cookers for making stews or a roast, but it can do so much more! You can make lasagna, soups, dessert, even bread! Here at Tuttorosso we know tomatoes so although we love to make a
chocolate lava cake in our slow cooker; we are going to stick to soup, pasta and sandwiches!
We all know that the best red sauce starts with the best ingredients like Tuttorosso tomatoes; but it's also best when cooked low and slow. For many that means either on the stove-top or in the oven, but who’s comfortable leaving all day with the oven on? Yeah, we aren’t either! So pull out your slow cooker and try our
Slow Cooker Bolognese for meaty goodness perfect for ladling of your favorite pasta. Vegetables usually take longer to cook so our first tip is
place vegetables such as carrots or potatoes on the tottom of your slow cooker. You want to make sure you have the right size cooker for your recipes. The idea of using the slow cooker is for ease and convenience. There is nothing worse than coming home to a mess when you didn't leave enough room for your recipe to expand during cooking. If you under fill your cooker however, food can cook too quickly and you may not have anything to eat along with a burnt mess to clean.
So don't over fill, but don't under fill your slow cooker is our second tip.
- Try Slow Cooker Lasagna for the easiest version of a family favorite. No boiling noodles in this delicious version.
Our third tip is to
get friendly with your slow cooker. Make sure you have used it a few times to get to know how it cooks. Many cookers have hot spots where food will cook faster than other spots. If your cooker has a removable insert, you can rotate the insert a few times during cooking for more even cooking. But most of aren't home while we make dinner in the slow cooker, so line the hot spot with a few layers of foil and extend a bit over the edge to keep it secure with the lid during cooking.
Have you given up on your slow cooker because your food doesn't turn out anything like the recipe and the food ends up being dry or bland? Well, that may be because your recipe was cooked to hot for too long. Our fourth tip is to
cook on the low setting and take advantage of that low temperature cooking of a slow cooker. High temps may seem like a solution for when you forgot to put together dinner before heading out for the day, but low and slow is the way to go.
- Make a classic Italian dish in a whole new way! Chicken Cacciatore Soup in your slow cooker brings out the deep familiar flavor of a family favorite.
Our fifth and final tip is actually taken from the laundry room - wait what? That's right -
a dryer sheet is the secret to removing burnt on messes from your slow cooker. You read that correctly, a dryer sheet! fill your slow cooker with water to cover the burnt mess add a dryer sheet and let it soak. The food will loosen after about 20-30 minutes and you can use the sheet to wipe it clean! Or feel free to spray your cooker with non stick spray or for really sticky food (think queso) use a slow cooker liner to prevent the mess altogether.
Happy slow cooking and feel free to check our recipes for your slow cooker by
clicking here >