About the recipe

The smell of tomato, garlic, and fresh parsley tickles my nose as I sit and enjoy this meal and am suddenly transported back to the days of my childhood, spending the night at Grandma and Grandpa’s house getting to choose anything for dinner. This dish is a staple memory of my childhood, in which I would help Grandpa in the kitchen mix and mash and roll the meatballs from this very exact recipe. Dancing around the kitchen as Grandma hummed music in her calming voice and Grandpa blurted anything and everything out in Italian is what makes spaghetti and meatballs my favorite night of the week.

Nothing satisfies more than a hearty bowl of homemade traditional Italian style meatballs and spaghetti smothered in some zesty tomato sauce.  With a simple recipe like this, grabbing these ingredients to whip up some Italian comfort food will make everyone’s bellies at the table happy. This recipe is derived from generations of my family when my Grandpa and his parents immigrated from Sicily to America. With just the little amount of money that they had, meatballs and spaghetti was their go-to, and whenever I need to feel the comfort of my Italian side I reach for this recipe. Don’t let the prep and cook time turn you away, Classic, easy Ingredients with a simple two-step cook process leave you feeling like an Italian extraordinaire.

Prep Time: 30 min Cook Time: 1 hour Makes: 18-20

The Ingredients

1 lb. of Ground Beef

4 oz. prepared fresh breadcrumbs

(To prepare fresh bread crumbs, use one stale French baguette or other French bread, rolled out with a hand roller or reduced to crumbs in food processor.  Remaining breadcrumbs can be saved.)

1 large egg

Milk (use sparingly: only enough to help mold the meatballs)

2 Tablespoons grated Parmesan Romano cheese

Salt

Pepper

1/3 Cup parsley, chopped fine

4 to 5 cloves garlic, chopped fine

1 teaspoon oregano

¼ cup basil

Olive oil for frying

12 oz. tomato paste

12 oz. warm water

Directions

                        For the Meatballs:

  1. Combine all ingredients and mix by hand. Add milk sparingly, just enough to bind.
  2. Shape into balls.
  3. Fry in olive oil until well browned.
  4. Remove from oil, drain well. These will hold if necessary.

For the cooking sauce:

  1. Add meatballs to diluted tomato paste. Add more water if necessary, the liquid must cover meatballs.
  2. Bring to boil, reduce to low heat, and warm for not longer than half an hour.
  3. Remove meatballs from the sauce, serve. Remaining sauce may be discarded.  Do not mix with meat sauce.

For serving:

  1. Cook any pasta of choice until al dente or according to box directions
  2. heat any meat sauce or marinara sauce of choice
  3. grab a bowl and serve pasta smothered in sauce topped with 1-2 meatballs
  4. ENJOY

STEP BY STEP

Step one begins with, about 1 lb. of ground beef. A bunch of Italian parsley, whole milk, Hunts tomato paste, any type will do, parmesan, dried basil, and oregano (fresh basil is preferred, but I only had dried) and Italian style bread crumbs. The recipe above calls for fresh ones, however when you are in a pinch for time dried will work.

my first initial step was to chop everything up so it would be faster to just throw it into the mixing bowl all at once rather than put some stuff in and then chop. The key here is to make sure that everything is very finely chopped. No one wants to bite into a large piece of garlic.

Once that is done you are going to want to grab any ordinary large mixing bowl, I made sure to grab the largest one I own so I knew there would a lot of room to add and mix ingredients. I started by adding meat cheese egg and bread crumbs then spices and herbs.

Now, this is the fun part where you get down and dirty. With both hands, you are going to mix all the ingredients together making sure that they are well combined. Also, something to note here is that you really make sure that you evenly distribute the breadcrumbs in the meat because this will help bind them into meatballs. I also have milk noted in the ingredients as you are mixing and combining this is the time to sparingly, about two tablespoons, add the milk and just work it into the meat. You will know they are ready to roll into balls when the everything is evenly distributed.

I used the measuring spoon for one tablespoon to scoop out my mixture to make sure that it was all relatively even. You are now going to roll the mixture into meatballs about golf ball size, slightly smaller but no bigger. While you are rolling them would be the time to heat your pan with olive oil for browning

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Add the meatballs to the heated olive oil. Brown until crisp and no pink is showing. This is my favorite part because the aroma of herbs and light frying begins to fill the kitchen. I browned the meatballs for about five minutes and made sure to not crowd them in the pan. Flip them to make sure you are getting all the sides. Once browned and no pink is showing I added them to a plate with a paper towel to drain the oil.

While I was in the middle of browning I heated up 12 oz. of warm water and 12 oz. of tomato paste in a large pasta pot like so.

The final step added the meatballs to the diluted tomato paste making sure they are pretty much covered. Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 30 minutes giving them a little stir here and there. The smells of tomato and and garlic filled the kitchen air with the presence of my grandma and grandpa. Once you have simmered for about 30 minutes they are ready to serve. Make sure to discard the diluted tomato paste for the reason that it is not a serving sauce. Now would be the time to either add them to your own tomato sauce or eat as is.

Stress-free, filling, and delicious, these meatballs are surely going to become one of your weeknight favorites and bring anyone and everyone as much smiles and love as they bring me to the dinner table.