Spaghetti & Meatballs

Classic Spaghetti and Meatballs. My number 1 AND 2 favourite foods. I love meatballs so much, that if I have them at a restaurant and they’re bad, it will ruin my day. It’s happened often enough that I no longer trust restaurant meatballs. You know what they say, if you want something done right, do it yourself. I used Bucatini for this recipe (one of my top 3 favourite noodles) because I felt like it, but if you want to make your own fresh pasta, I’ve linked it for you right here. Heading into 2021 with perfect meatball energy. I hope you like these meatballs so much that you never trust restaurant meatballs again either.

Ingredients

2 lbs. Ground Beef, Veal and Pork (I like to use a mix)

½ Cup Plain Breadcrumbs

⅓ Cup Milk

1 Egg

4 Cloves of Garlic (at least)

¼ Bunch of Parsley

Parmigiano-Reggiano

Tomato Sauce

Pasta of your Choice

Directions

In a large bowl, mix your breadcrumbs and milk and let them soak for a couple of minutes. Once they’re soaked, add your meat, chopped parsley, egg, garlic, parmigiano-reggiano, salt and pepper. Mix extremely well with your hands, until it’s evenly and fully combined. *Note* Make sure everything is chopped super small. If you have big chunks of anything, it will make it hard for everything to stick together and not fall apart. This is the main reason I don’t use onions, they’re very hard to dice super small and if you puree them then it just makes the meatballs super wet. NOT INTERESTED.

Once your meatballs are combined, using your hands or an ice cream scoop, make evenly sized meatballs and put them on a lined baking sheet.

Bake at 400℉ for 20 minutes, turning once at the halfway point.

While your meatballs are baking, it’s time to simmer some tomato sauce. I always use my own, but you can easily make a quick tomato sauce with some crushed tomatoes (or whole, if you like chunky), garlic, basil and salt. Very easy.

Once the meatballs are out of the oven, I put them in my sauce and let them simmer together anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour. They’re fully cooked out of the oven, this is just for extra flavour. You know your meatballs are well made if they don’t fall apart in your sauce. With this recipe, they will not fall apart. Promise.

While your meatballs simmer together with your sauce, boil your pasta per package instructions.

When your pasta is ready, strain and add it back into your pot. Add some sauce to your pot and mix to coat. I do this for a few reasons. One is so that when I put it away for leftovers, the noodles won’t stick together and the other is so that my pasta is flavoured and I don’t have to aggressively mix it with my meatballs risking my meatballs breaking.

Add your sauced pasta to a bowl and top with as many meatballs as your heart desires. I also like to sprinkle on some extra parsley and make it snow with parmigiano-reggiano.

May you never have a bad meatball again.