Other People’s Grandmas’ Spaghetti and Meatballs

I didn’t have Italian family members making spaghetti and meatballs growing up, so I had to borrow from those who were luckier than me. The first spaghetti I learned to make was A Working Mom’s Weeknight Spaghetti from my oldest sister in my early teens. That recipe was basically browning ground beef and adding jars of sauce (still a good go-to in a pinch). Then, in my early twenties I was pretty obsessed with the idea of going to Italy. I’m pretty sure reading the book Under the Tuscan Sun and watching Giada De Laurentiis on Food Network had a lot to do with this. I even got some CDs and books on learning to speak Italian. And so, I cooked a lot of Italian dishes; I even tried to make pasta once (please don’t ask). I also started making sauce from scratch. From there, I discovered some close kept secrets from my sister’s husband’s grandmother’s meatball recipe and my friend’s husband’s grandmother’s sauce recipe. Using those two recipes as guides, experimenting, making many good (and just as many bad) batches, I have discovered my own recipe.

Print Recipe

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Author: Leah Porche, Leah Porche, RDN, LDN

Ingredients

For the sauce

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion diced
• 2 carrots peeled and diced
• 5 cloves garlic minced
• 1 6oz can tomato paste
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp black pepper table ground
• 1 16oz can tomato sauce
• 1 32oz can of peeled whole tomatoes or crushed tomatoes
• 1/2 cup fresh basil shredded

For the meatballs

• 2 slices bread
• 1½ cups milk
• 2 eggs
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 onion shredded
• 1¼ cups parmesan grated
• 1/2 cup flat leaf parsley fresh, finely chopped (or 1 tbsp dry)
• 1/2 cup basil fresh, finely chopped (or 1 tbsp dry)
• 2 cups bread crumbs
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 lb italian sausage mild, uncased

Instructions

For the sauce

• Heat pot to medium heat, add oil, then onion and carrots.
• Sauté until soft and slightly golden, about 5-10 minutes.
• Add garlic, cook for an additional 2-3 minutes.
• Then, add tomato paste.
• Cook for at least 10 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent sticking and charring.
• When tomato paste is a deep red color add in sugar, salt, and pepper, stir well to combine.
• Add remaining tomato ingredients and half of the basil.
• Allow to simmer on medium-low heat for a minimum of one hour, optimally 2+ hours.
• Add meatballs when they are ready.
• Add remaining basil when ready to serve. 
• Cook your pasta of choice according to package directions, top with sauce, grated parmesan, and extra basil if you have it.

For the meatballs

• Preheat oven to 400°F.
• Place bread and milk in large bowl, allow bread to absorb all the liquid, then add eggs and scramble into bread mixture.
• Add in remaining ingredients, except meat, and mix thoroughly. Last, add meat, mix just to combined.
• Then, roll the meat into balls, a scoop can make this easier, somewhere between the size of a cotton ball and a golf ball, and put onto a cookie sheet about a half inch apart.
• Bake them for about 20 minutes, you want them to brown and harden up on the outside. 
• Gently, drop them into your sauce and let them finish cooking on low heat, just make sure not to stir the sauce for about a half hour or so after you drop them in so they can finish cooking.

Notes

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