Spaghetti and Meatballs
Wednesday, July 15, 2020
If there is one recipe that I was consistently terrible at making it was meatballs. No matter what I did they always turned into large chunks of flavorless hockey pucks of meat. To be honest I never really liked meatballs because for most people it was either the previous or for some reason Italian restaurants decided that the 1 pound meatball was a good thing.
Though during the holiday break my sister in law made some that were amazing. I asked her to please tell me the secret. There were three. First, dust the meatballs with flour. The second fry them, never bake them. Third only fry them halfway and then place them in your sauce to marinade and cook the rest of the way. Those three things made the difference.
A couple of other secrets that I've found when it comes to spaghetti and meatballs are these. Let your sauce reduce. This sauce is a very simple sauce but it gets all its flavor from reducing down and then at the end you add a bit of the pasta water to loosen it back up to help coat the noodles. Second use bucatini pasta, instead of regular spaghetti noodles. They are basically a thicker noodle. They can be hard to find but a simple search on Amazon will help you.
Ingredients
Sauce
¼ cup olive oil
8 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
6 basil leaves
2 28-ounce cans whole peeled tomatoes
Meatballs & Assemble
3 thick slices white sandwich bread, crusts removed
1 cup whole milk
2 large eggs, beaten
2 garlic cloves, minced
¼ cup parsley, finely chopped
¼ cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated
1 tsp. Kosher salt
1 tsp. black pepper, freshly ground
1½ lb. ground beef
1½ lb. Italian sausage, casing removed
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp. olive oil
12 oz. Bucatini pasta
2 Tbsp. butter
Instructions
Sauce
Heat the olive oil in a Dutch Oven over medium-low heat.
Cook the garlic until begin to brown on the edges.
Add the basil and stir to make the basil wilt.
Add the tomatoes to the pot by crushing them in your hands and add the juices in the can as well.
Reduce the heat and allow the sauce to simmer. Stirring every once in a while and allow the sauce to reduce for 1 hour. Be sure to scrape the bottom to make sure no sticky is occuring.
Meatballs
Place the milk and bread in a small bowl. Press the bread into the milk until all of the bread is moist. Firmly wring the bread to remove as much milk possible.
Finely chop the bread and place in a larger bowl.
Add the beaten egg, garlic, parsley, parmesan cheese, salt and black pepper. Mix throughly.
Add the ground beef and Italian sausage by break them both into small pieces. Mix well but be careful not to overwork the meat.
On a lined sheetpan measure out the meatballs in ¼ cup size balls.
Oil your hands and then work the meatballs into actual balls.
Dust the meatballs with light coating of flour.
Heat the olive oil into a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat.
Add half of the meatballs and cook, turning and rolling occasionally, until browned on all sides, about 5 minutes total. Place meatballs on a paper-towel lined plate to drain.
Add the meatballs to your sauce and allow to finish cooking in the simmer sauce. About 40 to 50 minutes.
Assembly
In boiling salty water, cook the Bucatini pasta to al dente.
Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the pasta water.
Remove the meatballs from the sauce and place on a sheetpan.
Add the pasta to the sauce, along with the butter, stir to combine. To help loosen the sauce, add some of the pasta water, 1 tablespoon at a time.
Serve the pasta in a bowl, top with a meatball and top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.
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