Spaghetti and Meatballs is the quintessential comfort food dish and the last pasta recipe I will be sharing for a little bit, I think. Don’t worry, I didn’t eat all these pasta dishes at the same time. Some had been banked for a while. Hence the photos from my old apartment. But back to the recipe. I love this dish and have experimented quite a lot with it. I tried a couple of things out in the most recent batch I made and the photos are from that experiment. The recipe I’m actually sharing is a little bit different, but is still well illustrated by the photos from yesterday. You’ll get the gist, so I’ll stop over-explaining and get on with the show!

RECIPE

Yield: at least 10 servings | Prep Time: 10 minutes | Sauté Time: 30 minutes |Cook Time: 3 hours

SAUCE

4 cloves garlic, minced
1 large shallot, chopped
1 red onion, sliced
1 6 oz-can tomato paste
2 c red wine
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1 t marjoram
1 t thyme
2 t basil
2 t oregano
½ t red pepper flakes
1 t salt
½ t pepper
2 t sugar
3 24 oz-cans crushed tomatoes
1 14.5 oz-can diced tomatoes
24 oz water

MEATBALLS

2 lbs ground beef (85%-15%)
1 lb ground pork (85%-15%)
1 onion, grated
1 egg
1/3 c grated parmesan
1 t salt
¼ t pepper
½ oregano
1 c bread crumbs

1. Heat 1 T olive oil and 1 T vegetable oil a large stockpot on a medium flame. The olive oil is for flavor. The vegetable oil increases the smoking point and prevents burning. Toss the sliced onions into the pot and sauté for 3 minutes. Lower the heat slightly. Add the shallot and garlic and keep sautéing for another 12 minutes until the veggies are softened and just barely golden. I recommend cooking the onions, shallots, and garlic this way (at a lower temperature for a bit longer) because it keeps everything from scorching and blackening. Burned garlic can ruin the sauce. (I speak from experience here, people.)

2. Stir in the tomato paste and let everything just melt together on a medium-low flame. Let the mixture hang out and don’t mix it too much; this way it can create a fond. The fond is a brownish film on the bottom of the pot that is filled with lots of good caramelized bits that add a lot flavor. So you need to mix it enough so that it doesn’t burn outright, but not too much as to prevent the fond from forming. A fine line, but an important line. It should take about 6 minutes.

Sidenote: Yes, the timings are super exact in this recipe. This is because I’ve been writing up a ton of recipes that I haven’t kept a log of accurate times and THAT HAS BEEN VERY FRUSTRATING. So timed this one. You’re welcome.

3. Once the fond has formed, deglaze the pan with the red wine and Worcestershire sauce. By this I mean pour that stuff into the pan and scrap up the tasty little brown bits with a wooden spoon. Easy as pie! Add all your herbs and spices, and of course the salt and pepper, and cook the mixture together for another 4 minutes.

4. Now you’re ready for all that tomato-y goodness. Add the crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes and the water and stir to combine. Crank it up to high heat and hover around cleaning up the kitchen while you wait for your sauce to come up to a simmer. Once you have finished cleaning and you have a simmer, reduce the heat and you can go along your merry way. As long as you come back and check on the sauce every 15-20 minutes to ensure that it isn’t simmering to hard and nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pot.

5. I’m of the opinion that the longer you cook the sauce, the better it is, so I generally cook the sucker for about 3 hours, from the time I leave it simmering to when I dish it up.

6. About an hour and 15 minutes before you want to serve this meal, gather the ingredients for the meatballs. The meatballs are easy to make. You simply need to throw everything into a large bowl and mix until everything is *just* combined. Don’t work the meat too much or it will make the meatballs tough. Roll them into golf ball size balls.

7. Now here’s where you have a decision to make. You can: A) transfer them directly into the sauce and cook for about an hour; B) Brown them in a sauté pan with a little bit of olive oil and then put them in the sauce and cook for an hour; or C) broil them on a sheet pan for a few minutes to brown them and them put them in the sauce, and you know the rest. This is completely up to you. I like the ease and reduced fat of method A, but there is something to be said for the richness and for lack of a better word, “meatball-ness” of methods B and C. With method C being cleaner and less fatty than B. To be honest, I’m liable to do any of these methods and generally think you get a good result whichever you choose. So, dear reader, do what your heart tells you.

8. No matter which path you choose during your Meatball Cooking Musings, you need to cook them in the sauce for at least an hour. After that your sauce and meatballs are ready for a little bit of spaghetti. So serve up about 3/4 cup of sauce and two meatballs on your favorite brand of spaghetti or linguine (if you're feeling wacky). I'm really partial to this brand called Dreamfields, which is little bit more expensive but is higher in fiber than normal pasta and tastes great. I'm always looking for ways of adding fiber without eating health pellet-esque foods, so this is a win. There it is Spaghetti + Meatballs. ENJOY!