Midweek Munchies

Meatballs and Spaghetti

Yes, I have the name of the dish backwards, because the meatballs are the star here, and there are lots of them.  I also found the most amazing jarred marinara sauce EVER last year and it beats any recipe for homemade sauce that I have tried. So, with jarred sauce, albeit great jarred sauce, I don't think it's fair to put the "spaghetti" before the "meatballs"!

Meatballs and Spaghetti
1 lb lean ground beef
1 lb ground pork (you could substitute 1/2 lb pork and a 1/2 lb Italian sausage for more robust flavor)
1 small onion, diced
2 eggs
1/4 cup parsley, chopped (please, please don't use dried...fresh herbs are so much better!)
1/4 cup grated parmesano reggiano
2 slices bread
3 T milk
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/8 tsp garlic salt
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
Olive oil
1 lb spaghetti pasta
2 jars marinara sauce - (or if you have a homemade sauce recipe that is better than this sauce, please please share with me!)

In a large skillet or dutch oven, drizzle olive oil and saute the onion over medium heat until tender.  Remove from the pan. Place the milk in a bowl and soak the slices of bread (great way to use the ends of the loaf that no one eats in my house!) in the milk. In a large bowl, crumble the wet bread slices, and add the ground meats, onions, eggs, parsley, parmesan, garlic, salt, pepper, and garlic salt. 

The best way to mix this is to get right in there with your hands...sometimes it's good to get down and dirty!

Shape the mixture into meatballs, about 2" each.  I make about 30 meatballs out of the mixture.  Pour enough olive oil to just cover the bottom of the skillet/dutch oven, heat over medium heat, and place the meatballs in.  It takes me two batches to cook the meatballs, but if you have a pan large enough for the whole batch at once, go for it! Also, if you prefer to truly fry your meatballs, add more oil; I would suggest a combination of olive oil and canola oil, so that the olive oil does not overheat.

Once the meatballs have browned on the first side, turn them over, cover the pan and reduce heat to medium-low.  The steam will help them cook through and will retain moisture. 

Turn the meatballs through cooking, to ensure that they are browned on all sides. Entire cooking time is approximately 20 minutes, but I cut through a meatball to check for doneness. Remove to a paper towel to drain.

At this point, I place the second batch of meatballs on and cook the pasta according to package directions - al dente. Once the meatballs have drained, add them to a pan along with marinara sauce and heat over low heat until warm. 

As I mentioned earlier, I discovered an amazing jarred sauce that does not taste "canned" like so many other jarred sauces out there....Mezzetta makes not only great pasta sauces, but also jarred olives and pepperoncinis that are of high quality.  We haven't tried any of their products that we have not liked (the Tomato Basil sauce is good enough to eat straight from the jar!)

Serve the meatballs and sauce (or "gravy" depending on what part of the country you're from!) with the cooked spaghetti.  We love to top ours with cheese, of course!