eatbensmeat

I really like making just a thick meat sauce with lots of vegetables, but I figured I’d try something different, and these came out great!  Good on spaghetti, great for sandwiches as well.  I bake the meatballs some first to cook off some of the grease.  Not all of it, because you want some, but it keeps the sauce from giving you nasty heartburn.

For the meatballs:

1 1/2 pounds ground beef

1 1/2 pounds italian sausage, removed from the casing

6-8 cloves garlic, pressed or minced

1 bunch of parsley, chopped

salt (I’m not sure how much, I used about 1 tbsp)

1 cup breadcrumbs

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 eggs

1 medium onion, finely chopped

For the sauce

2  28 ounce cans either tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes

2 3 ounce cans tomato paste

1 cup beef stock or water

6-8 garlic cloves, crushed or minced

2 ounces fresh basil, chopped (the packages you can get from the store are usually around an ounce each, so 2 of those)

1 medium onion, coarsely chopped

1 -2 teaspoons crushed red pepper, optional

Directions:

You should probably start with the meatballs.  Preheat your oven to 400 F.  Add all of the ingredients to a large mixing bowl and mix it together, as if you are making meatloaf.  Knead everything together until the ingredients are thoroughly mixed.

Grease a couple of cookie sheets and start making meatballs with your hands. I made them between 1 1/2 inches and 2 inches in diameter because I like big balls.  Heh.  Lay them on the cookie sheets. This amount of meat will probably fill up two cookie sheets.

Once you’re done making meatballs, toss them in the oven and set the timer for 25 minutes.

While they’re cooking, you can do everything for the sauce!  Add the tomato sauce, garlic, tomato paste, and broth to a large pot, bring to a boil, and reduce heat to simmer.  Chop the onions and basil and add them to the pot, as well as the red pepper if you’re going that route.

Now you probably have ten minutes left on the timer.  I don’t know, wash the bowls, maybe?

Once the timer goes off, removed the meatballs from the pan, and submerge them in the sauce, gently, so they don’t fall apart.  If you don’t have enough sauce to cover the meatballs, you can add more crushed tomatoes or canned sauce.  Simmer for an hour so the flavors of the meat can seep in to the sauce, and vice versa.  Serve over spaghetti!