Classics to serve with spaghetti and meatballs:
Our Best Spaghetti And Meatballs Recipe
We’ve turned to the ultimate nonna, Marcella Hazan, for inspiration, who calls for only three ingredients in her classic, velvety, rich tomato sauce (a sauce that inspired our SpaghettiOs recipe, too!). Canned tomatoes, butter, and onions. From there you’ll simmer beef and pork meatballs, and serve it with a big bowl of spaghetti noodles. Make our Red Wine Sangria and Easy Tiramisu or Olive Oil Cake for dessert. Mamma mia! For another classic Italian dish, check out our Chicken Cacciatore.
Ingredients For Homemade Spaghetti And Meatballs
For the sauce – Canned whole stewed tomatoes, canned tomato sauce, white onions, salted butter
For the meatballs – 80/20 ground beef, ground pork, eggs, Italian-style breadcrumbs, fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, Parmesan cheese, garlic
Spaghetti
Salt and pepper
How to Make Meatballs
Make the sauce in a large pot.
In a large bowl, combine the beef, pork, eggs, breadcrumbs, parsley, Parmesan, garlic, salt, and pepper.
Mix well, then with wet hands. If you don’t like touching raw meat, you can wear latex gloves. Rub a little olive oil on the palms of the gloves to prevent the mixture from sticking.
Form golf ball–size balls (about 2 tablespoons each). A small scoop (either ¾ ounce or 1 ounce size) will work great if you have one at home.
Carefully add the meatballs to the sauce. Return the sauce to a simmer over medium heat, then reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook for 30 minutes, or until the meatballs are cooked through.
Serve the meatballs and tomato sauce over spaghetti topped with additional parsley and Parmesan.
Homemade Tomato SauceHow to Store Leftovers + Tips
Time! Simmering the meatballs in the tomato sauce long enough for them to really soak up the buttery, tomato goodness is key.
Mixing! Don’t overmix your meatballs. Italian meatballs should be moist, yielding, unbelievably tender, and you can ensure that yours turn out just the way you want them by handling the meat as little as possible.
Ingredients! Do use fresh herbs, fresh cheese, and fresh garlic cloves!
Make this a real Italian meal with bread (our Parker House Rolls would be perfect for the sauce) and a nice vegetable dish, like Roasted Cauliflower or Roasted Fennel.
Leftovers should be eaten within 3-4 days.
We love Marcella’s sauce, but during tomato season, you may want to try this recipe with our homemade tomato sauce, which uses fresh tomatoes instead of canned.
Meatballs can be wrapped and frozen for future use. We prefer to store them uncooked, but cooked meatballs can be frozen too. The sauce can be frozen. Gently reheat on the stovetop.
For more meatball recipe ideas, check out our favorite Meatball Recipes!
More Great Pasta Dishes From The Modern Proper
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