Slow Cooker Baked Meatballs with Seasoned Tomatoes

Meatballs are a very versatile food to use with a slow cooker. Whether you are serving meatballs and sauce at a party, or perhaps preparing a fresh pot of meatballs Swedish style or in a barbecue sauce, the slow cooker is a resourceful and easy-to-use kitchen appliance.

One of our favorite weekday meals is crispy baked meatballs, sans gravy or sauce (many of you may still prefer the more traditional frying method…either choice being perfectly fine). We recently decided to make baked meatballs on a day that we were also planning to head to a matinée movie with the kids. My original goal was to roll and bake the meatballs earlier in the day, and to reheat them in the oven when we returned home. Being a home cook who is always looking for new takes on the traditional, I started to wonder if and how I could put our slow cooker to use.

Normally, a slow cooker would be used to simmer a dish unattended at a low temperature as opposed to baking, boiling or frying. While you can use a slow cooker to prepare dry ingredients such as breads and cakes, a majority of slow cooker recipes incorporate some form of liquid, whether it is produced from a meat that is in the recipe or if the liquid is added by hand. Because the slow cooker operates at such a low temperature, the heated liquid helps the cooking process without actually burning off or evaporating.

However, the whole intention of making crispy baked meatballs was to enjoy them crispy, without having them simmer in a liquid or a sauce. If I were to put the already baked meatballs into a slow cooker without any additional liquid, I may risk having the meatballs dry out and/or burn. It’s doubtful that the already baked meatballs would produce enough juice to heat the meatballs without having them become too dry to enjoy. If I were to add liquid to the slow cooker, they may become soft and lose the desired crunchy taste and texture.

I needed to add something else to the pot that would either produce its own juices or would absorb any other liquid that I may have added, without the risk of having the meatballs turn soggy. The solution ended up being simple and practical. Because my family and I traditionally serve meatballs in Sunday Gravy, I decided to play off of the roots of the sauce ingredients and use grape tomatoes tossed with olive oil, fresh basil, salt and pepper, along with a half cup of broth. By adding the seasoned tomatoes to the bottom of the slow cooker, I now had a bed for the meatballs to sit on without having them come in contact with the broth at the bottom of the slow cooker. The broth would heat up and cause enough moisture in the slow cooker to keep the dish hot, without having to worry about the meatballs soaking in the broth and becoming mushy and losing the desired crunch factor.

Another plus to this solution was that we also ended up with a nice warm tomato salad to serve on the side. Not only was this solution easy and efficient, it also added a rich and flavorful coating to the exposed portions of the meatballs, with no lose of crunch appeal. Of course, you can use a number of different vegetables to achieve the vegetable bed. Seasoned zucchini or squash, or a combination with grape or cherry tomatoes would all work well.

Winner, winner, meatball dinner!

Slow Cooker Baked Meatballs with Seasoned Tomatoes

• 12-15 baked or fried meatballs (follow your favorite meatball recipe)
• 1 small container of grape or cherry tomatoes (zucchini and/or yellow squash would also work well)
• 1/2 cup broth (beef, chicken or vegetable would all work)
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped basil
• Italian seasoning (optional)

Lightly drizzle the tomatoes with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and the chopped basil. Toss to evenly coat. Place the seasoned tomatoes on the bottom of the slow cooker pot. Place the cooked meatballs on top. Pour the broth over the meatballs. Season with additional Italian seasoning if you prefer. Set the slow cooker to low for 6-7 hours. Serve the meatballs along side the cooked tomatoes and enjoy!