Italian Meat Sauce With Meatballs Recipes

GRANDMA'S OLD ITALIAN SPAGHETTI SAUCE WITH MEATBALLS

Steps:

• Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in the bottom of a large saucepan, and fry the garlic cloves 5 to 8 minutes, until brown and fragrant. Remove the garlic cloves and set aside. Place the pig's feet and pork neck bones in the saucepan and fry, turning occasionally, until the meat and bones have browned, about 15 minutes.
• Return the garlic cloves to the saucepan, and stir in the tomato paste and 1 1/2 cups of water. Bring to a boil, and pour in the tomato puree. Reduce heat to low, and simmer for about 3 hours, stirring from the bottom often to prevent burning, until the pig's feet are tender and the mixture begins to thicken. Stir in the sugar, pepper, and baking soda. Continue to simmer while you prepare the meatballs.
• Soak the torn bread with 1 cup of water in a bowl. Squeeze excess water out of the bread, and place the bread in a large bowl with the 6 beaten eggs, ground pork, ground veal, and ground beef. Mix thoroughly and form into 24 meatballs about 2 1/2 inches in diameter.
• Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat, stir in the minced garlic and chopped fresh basil, let them cook for about 1 minute, and then add the meatballs. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and fry them on all sides until brown, about 15 minutes, working in batches, if necessary.
• Place the browned meatballs, along with the oil, garlic, and basil from the skillet into the sauce, stirring lightly to avoid breaking them. Add the whole hard-boiled eggs, and simmer for about 1 1/2 more hours, until the meatballs are cooked, the sauce is thick, and all the flavors have blended.

ITALIAN SPAGHETTI SAUCE WITH MEATBALLS

Steps:

• In a large bowl, combine ground beef, bread crumbs, parsley, Parmesan, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, garlic powder and beaten egg. Mix well and form into 12 balls. Store, covered, in refrigerator until needed.
• In a large saucepan over medium heat, saute onion and garlic in olive oil until onion is translucent. Stir in tomatoes, salt, sugar and bay leaf. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 90 minutes. Stir in tomato paste, basil, 1/2 teaspoon pepper and meatballs and simmer 30 minutes more. Serve.
• My update Note: I was leary of making this without first pre-cooking the meatballs, but this is by far the best spaghetti and meatballs I have ever made. The meatballs ended up a nice brown color, they were not over cooked and I think putting them in before browning allowed some of the meat flavor to seep into the sauce.
• #2 Instead of using all ground beef, I opted to use a combination of ground pork and ground beef (12 oz ground beef, 4 oz ground pork) -instead of plain bread crumbs, I used pre-seasoned breadcrumbs, I increased the parmesan cheese to 4 oz. With the sauce, instead of using 2 (28 oz) cans of whole tomatoes, I used 1 (28 oz can) of whole tomatoes, and then two smaller cans (14 oz) of crushed tomatoes. After simmering the sauce, I ran half of it through the blender to make it smoother. I also added a small can of tomato sauce in addition to the tomato paste, plus for added flavour I added 1 tsp italian seasoning, 1/2 tsp basil, and 1 tsp garlic powder.

ITALIAN MEAT SAUCE II

Steps:

• Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Saute onion and garlic until onion is soft and translucent. Pour in crushed tomatoes and whole tomatoes. As you are adding the whole tomatoes, let them slowly slide through your fingers and crush them coarsely on the way into the pot. Season with 1/4 cup of the parsley and 1 teaspoon garlic powder. Cover, and reduce heat to low.
• In a large bowl, mix the ground beef chuck, breadcrumbs, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/8 cup parsley, egg, milk, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix ingredients with your hands until well blended. Form into small, golf ball-size meatballs. Slice all of the sausage links but one hot and one mild link into 1/2 inch chunks.
• Heat 2 tablespoons in a large skillet over medium heat. The oil should be slightly smoking. Slice open the remaining links of hot and mild sausage, and crumble into the pan. Saute, continually breaking up the pieces, until they are all golden brown. Transfer to the sauce. Brown the meatballs, chopped sausage links, and pork bones on all sides until they are a deep golden brown. You may need to do this in stages, and continually transfer into the sauce when browned. Drain excess fat.
• Pour the red wine into the skillet and deglaze all of the brown chunks on the bottom of the pan. Let the wine reduce to about half, then transfer into the sauce. Frequently stir, and season with salt and pepper to taste for about another hour after the last meat has been transferred into the pan. Finish by stirring the remaining fresh parsley into the sauce. Spoon sauce over your favorite pasta and serve the meat on a separate plate.