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Navy pasta with stew in a slow cooker

Slow-Cooker Navy-Style Pasta with Canned Stew

A simple, delicious, and filling everyday meal! Navy-style pasta can be made even with canned stew, and even in a slow cooker. But there are a few tricks to this deceptively simple dish, and I'll walk you through them.

Julia M.

Recipe author

Composition / ingredients

Servings:

Pasta

300

Canned stew

350

Onion

Carrots

Water

300

Vegetable oil

Salt

Translation table of volumetric measures

Nutrients and energy value of the composition of the recipe

By weight of the composition:

Proteins 19 % 7 g

Fats 30 % 11 g

Carbohydrates 51 % 19 g

210 kcal

GI: 10 / 90 / 0

Cooking method

Cooking time: 30 min

Step 1:

How do you make navy-style pasta with canned stew in a slow cooker? Start by gathering your ingredients. Use any pasta shape you like, but steer clear of the very largest and very smallest ones — go for something in between. The stew can be any kind of meat, as long as it's one you enjoy. I'm using pork stew.
Step 2:

Peel the onion and carrot and rinse them under running water. Finely chop the onion and shred the carrot on a coarse grater.
Step 3:

Set the slow cooker to the "Fry" setting and pour a little vegetable oil into the bowl. Once the bowl is hot, add the chopped onion and carrot. Sauté the vegetables for 3–4 minutes, stirring now and then so they don't scorch. Leave the lid open for this step.
Step 4:

Add the canned stew to the sautéed vegetables. Stir everything together and warm it through so the jelly in the stew has time to melt.
Step 5:

Then add the dry (uncooked) pasta to the bowl.
Step 6:

Pour in the hot water and stir everything together. Add a little salt to taste, but keep in mind the stew is already salty on its own. I don't add any spices, since the stew already has bay leaf and peppercorns, which bring plenty of aroma. Switch the slow cooker to the "Stew" setting for 15 minutes and close the lid. Since the cooker is already hot, the pasta will start cooking right away. Stir it a couple of times as it goes.
Step 7:

By now the pasta has plumped up and soaked in the water. Stir it all together, divide among plates, and serve. Enjoy!

Keep in mind that the cooking time and setting in this recipe are approximate. Every slow cooker works a little differently, and even identical models from the same manufacturer can have their quirks. Before making a new dish in your slow cooker, read the manual carefully, then start by cooking dishes you already know well before moving on to new ones, dialing in the setting and timing to suit your own machine.
For how to cook pasta properly, how to get it al dente, how to pick a quality product so you're never disappointed, and much more, see the article "Pasta: the fine points of choosing and the secrets of cooking it."
It's best to cook with neutral-tasting filtered or bottled water. If you use tap water, keep in mind it can give the dish an off, characteristic aftertaste.