Over The Top Spaghetti Sauce
Over The Top Spaghetti Sauce is a smoker or Traeger pellet grill recipe using the same concept as over the top chili, but with pasta sauce!
Equipment
- Traeger/Pellet Grill
- Smoker
- wire rack or small grill grate
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons olive oil (plus a little more for the wire rack)
- 1 large onion (or 2 small onions) diced
- kosher salt, pepper, crushed red pepper flakes
- 6 to 7 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 2 24 ounce jars pasta sauce of choice (I used Prego for convenience, but if you have a homemade sauce use that)
- 1 pound ground Italian sausage
- Optional: cooked pasta of choice, parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Set a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat on the stove. Add the olive oil, onion, kosher salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper flakes. Cook 5 to 6 minutes.
- Add the garlic and cook another minute. Add the Italian seasoning, more kosher salt, pepper, crushed red pepper flakes and pasta sauce. Stir until combined and set aside.Note: Add a little water to the empty pasta jars, shake, and pour in the sauce to get it all out of the jar.
- Set your smoker or pellet grill to 250 degrees. Put the pot or Dutch oven on the grate. Place a wire rack or small grill grate over the pot. Brush the center with some olive oil and place the Italian sausage on the rack over the pasta sauce.Note: If you have a pellet grill you can start it at 180 degrees on super smoke for extra smoky flavor if desired, then turn the heat up to 250 after 30 minutes.
- Let this cook for 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Then add the cooked Italian sausage into the sauce, crumbling/ breaking it apart and stirring together. Note: I wore heat proof gloves and broke into small pieces by hand.
- Serve over cooked pasta with parmesan cheese if desired.