A good plate of spaghetti and meatballs is one of my favorite all time meals. I’ve gotten spoiled over the years making my own so I’m sometimes disappointed when I try this dish when we go out. Don’t get me wrong there are lots of good versions out there, just not great. I make the sauce and the meatballs from scratch so it’s hard to beat this version in my opinion. This recipe is based on my Grandma K’s recipe that she would make using her fresh tomatoes from her garden. Every time I make this dish I think of her encouragement in the kitchen when I would spend summers down south with her.
Another good thing about this dish is that I can make a big batch of both and freeze the left overs. This is an easy process, but it’s a little time consuming but totally worth the work, especially since you can get a lot of meals in the freezer from this recipe.
One reason I like my recipe so much is that I take the time in September every year to can a ton of my own tomatoes. Of course a good quality canned whole tomato will work here too….no worries! I use two quarts in this recipe, but it’s easy to increase all the ingredients for stocking up the freezer. One green pepper, 3-4 garlic cloves, the 2 quarts of tomatoes I mentioned already, one small can of tomato paste, Italian seasoning, oregano, salt, pepper, and olive oil. That’s all it takes for delicious sauce.
Heat about a table spoon of olive oil in a dutch oven over medium heat. Cut up the green pepper and peel the garlic cloves and drop them in the small bowl of a food processor and process until smooth. I add a little olive oil just go get things going if needed. Transfer the pepper/garlic mixture to the pot and let it start to saute a little bit. If you want to add a little spice now is a good time to add a dash (or lots) of crushed red pepper – totally optional. Move on to the large bowl of the food processer and drop in the tomatoes. Process them down until they are pretty smooth consistency. Add the tomato paste to the pot and let it cook for 1-2 minutes with the peppers and garlic. Stir in the pureed tomatoes to the pepper/garlic/tomato paste in the pot. Add one tablespoon of dried Italian seasoning and 1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to start and a few grinds of fresh black pepper. Heat the sauce on medium heat until it starts to bubble up, then turn to low and simmer for at least an hour and up to 3 hours. The longer you simmer it the thicker the sauce will be. Taste the sauce frequently and adjust the seasoning according to your own taste. You will likely need to add a pinch of salt here and there. If you happen to get some acidic tomato product, add sugar about 1/2 teaspoon at a time to balance things out. If you are eating this plain on pasta, fresh basil is a nice addition right before serving. Potion out the leftover sauce into zip top freezer bags and lay flat in the freezer to store.
And now for the meatballs….
I use this sauce for quite a few things (with meatballs, for stuffed shells, with Italian sausage, and on my chicken parmesan) but this might be my favorite use. These meatballs are a mix of ground beef and mild Italian sausage. Once you learn the technique, feel free to change up the meats to your own taste! Ground turkey with some chicken sausage is a good combo too. You may have to add a little more liquid to make sure they don’t dry out if you get too much lean meat going on in these however.
The ingredients are pretty basic for this recipe. That’s part of why I like it so much. It’s pretty much meat, basic veggies , bread and eggs to bind it and some seasoning. I started baking my meatballs years ago when I saw Ina Garten make them this way. It’s so much easier and a lot less mess to deal with. I’m thankful for my self cleaning oven monthly. 🙂
- 1 1/2 lbs ground beef
- 1/2 lb Italian sausage
- 4 slices white bread
- 1 medium onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- parmesan, parsley, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning olive oil
To start I trim most of the crust off of 4 slices of plain while break and cube it up. Toss it with enough mil to cover it and set it aside to soak. Next finely chop the onion and garlic.
Start by heating up about a tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat in a small skillet. Add the onions and a pinch of salt. Sweat the onions down until they are soft, about 6-8 minutes . Add the garlic and cook for just about 1 minute. Turn the pan off and allow to cool.
On to the meats. I like the mix of ground round and a mild Italian pork sausage, about 2-1 ratio but feel free to change it up if you like more/less sausage. I also like hot sausage here but I’m in the minority with the rest of my extended family so I stick with the mild. I put the beef in first, break up the sausage and use a fork to mix them together. I add the egg on the side and beat it up and then incorporate it into the meat mix.
Remember that bread and milk concoction? Take a fork and beat it up until it’s in a loose paste form. Pour that over the meats along with the cooled onions/garlic, the parsley, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, parmesan cheese. Mix in the seasoning and veggies using a fork again. Just keep things light so that your meatballs have a good texture. The more you compact the mix the more dense hour meatballs will be. At this point I usually make a small “tester” meatball to check seasoning. I just use the skillet I cooked the onions in…you know I hate to do extra dishes! If they are not holding together try adding some bread crumbs. If they are too dry add a splash of milk or a drizzle of olive oil. Adjust salt, pepper, cheese, Italian seasoning as you see fit. Once you are happy with the taste, time to move on to forming the meatballs.
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. I use a medium scoop to measure the meatballs out so that they are about the same size and will cook at the same rate. I scoop them out, give them a little roll to make them even and put them on a sheet pan with parchment paper. When they are all ready to go, I brush them with some olive oil and pop them in the over for about 20-25 minutes.
Give the meatballs a few minutes to cool off and then drop them in your sauce. At this point it a matter to taste. The meatballs with cook in the sauce and they will continue to cook. I usually let them hang out at a simmer for another 45 minutes to an hour.
Note: Since I don’t normally need almost 50 meatballs at one time, I roll out what I need for the size of the dinner party I’m having, then I freeze the rest. I scoop out 12 into a pile, them I wrap the whole thing up in plastic wrap, them foil, then in a freezer bag. I use foil when I don’t have freezer paper on hand, but you can use either. Label them and toss in the freezer for a quick dinner later. Just thaw them out, roll and bake!
All you need now is some pasta. For the classic, toss with your favorite spaghetti and top with parmesan cheese. I have been known to toss this with some rigatoni and motz/parm/ricotta cheese and pop it in the over every now and then. Garlic bread is almost a must with this dish too. Enjoy!
Amy’s Kitchen 