If I’ve got a busy week coming up and won’t have time to cook, I’ll just make a big ol’ pot of this here Spaghetti And Meatballs and eat off of it all week! It just gets better and better, the longer the spices permeate. Or, if you’ve got a bunch of family comin’ over for Sunday supper!
Good Ol’ Spaghetti And Meatballs
Recipe by: Bobbi Jo Lathan
Recipe type: Entree
Cuisine: Traditional
PREP TIME
20 mins
COOK TIME
60 mins
TOTAL TIME
1 hour 20 mins
INGREDIENTS
The Meatballs:
1 pound ground beef (I like sirloin)
½ cup Italian Bread Crumbs
1 egg (beaten)
3 cloves fresh garlic (minced)
â…“ cup fresh parsley (chopped)
â…“ cup Parmesan cheese (grated)
¼ cup Asiago cheese (grated)
2 teaspoons fresh oregano (chopped)
1 teaspoon fresh basil (chopped)
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
The Sauce:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
1 white onion (chopped)
2 stalks fresh celery (chopped)
4 cloves fresh garlic (chopped)
1 6 oz. can tomato paste
1 8 oz. can diced tomatoes (in juice)
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
2 bay leaves
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves (chopped/ dried oregano-use 1Tbsb.)
2 tablespoons fresh basil leaves (chopped/ dried basil-use 1 Tbsp.)
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 cup water
INSTRUCTIONS
The Meatballs:
Git out a big mixin’ bowl. Add the chopped sirloin or ground beef into the bowl.
Next, add the bread crumbs and egg.
Mix this ‘til the egg is blended into the meat and crumbs.
Now, add the garlic, parsley, parmesan and Asiago cheeses, oregano, basil, salt, and the black and cayenne pepper. I just use my hands and mix all these ingredients and the meat until well blended.
Then, roll a little of the meat mixture with your hands into golf ball sized balls and place them on a plate or cooking sheet until all the meat is used up. Once you’ve finished rolling up the balls, place them in the refrigerator while we make the sauce.
The Sauce:
Git out your Dutch oven or spaghetti pot and heat the 2 tablespoons of olive oil and butter in the pot over a medium heat.
Once the oil is hot, add the chopped onions, celery to the pot and stir around until the onions are translucent and the chopped celery has softened a bit.
Then, add the freshly chopped garlic and stir that around for another minute or two. (You don’t want it to brown.)
Now, add to the celery-onion mixture, the tomato paste, the diced tomatoes, and the can of crushed tomatoes. Stir it around to blend, and then add the bay leaves, salt, pepper, garlic powder, oregano, basil and cayenne pepper and stir ‘til blended. Let this cook over your medium heat for about 5 minutes. It will begin to thicken a bit and then add the cup of water and stir that ‘til mixed. Turn your burner down to a medium heat.
Back to Meatballs:
While the sauce is cooking, git out your skillet and heat the 2 tablespoons of olive oil over a medium-high heat.
Take your meatballs out of the fridge and add them, a few at a time, to the heated oil in the skillet. You want them to cook evenly, so don’t crowd them too much. If you need to brown them in two batches, that’s fine.
Brown the meatballs in the skillet on all sides and then once browned, take a slotted spoon (so extra grease can drain) and place the browned meatballs into the spaghetti sauce you have cookin’ on the other burner.
Once all the meatballs are in the sauce, gently stir around the meatballs into the sauce.
Back to Both:
You’re gonna let the sauce and the meatballs cook over the medium heat for about 45 minutes. Every 10 minutes, or so, you want to check your sauce to see if it has become too thick. At which time, you can stir in another half cup more of water.
After about 20 minutes, you can taste the sauce to see if you need a little more oregano or salt, pepper, or garlic powder. (For a deeper flavor, you can also stir in â…“ cup of red wine.)
The Spaghetti:
Once the sauce and meatballs are almost done, git out another tall pot and cook some spaghetti pasta according to the package directions.
Once the pasta is al dente, turn off the heat under the pot and git out your colander and place it in your sink.
Pour the pasta into the colander and place the hot pot back on the burner you turned off. Drain the water off the pasta.
Place another 2 tablespoons of olive oil and about 2 tablespoons of butter into the hot pot you cooked the spaghetti in. It should melt as the pot is still hot.
Then add the drained pasta back into the pot. Toss the cooked spaghetti in the olive oil-butter mixture.
Assembly:
Now, git out your plates and place some pasta on each plate and top with some spaghetti sauce and meatballs, sprinkle the top with a little freshly grated parmesan cheese and serve up hot with a nice tossed salad and some tasty fresh garlic bread and a good glass of red wine! Mama mia! This stuff is good! YUM!