Better Than Your Mom's Spaghetti and Meatballs

Yes - better than your Mom’s meatballs and spaghetti. (Actually I never remember eating homemade meatballs as a kid, but the title sounded catchy!)

The kids in our family out-number the adults, so the recipes posted here are designed with kids in mind. However, these meatballs are so good that adults will not be able to turn them down. No compromising for the kids on this meal – these are the kind you get at a good ( family oriented) restaurant.

Yes –they are time consuming. Anytime you put the words homemade and meatballs together, you are in for a couple of hours.  So put on some good music (Madeleine Peyroux is good for meatballs) and roll up your sleeves.

For the Meatballs

• 1 pound sausage (we love Beelers breakfast sausage) or for a milder meatball use ½ pound veal and ½ pound pork
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 cup bread crumbs (make your own by taking stale bread and whirling it in the food processor or use Ener-G crackers or Hol-Grain Brown Rice Bread Crumbs)
• 1 t parsley flakes (or 2 T chopped fresh)
• ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese (use Vegan Grated Topping for CF)
• 2 t kosher salt
• ½ t pepper
• ¼ t ground nutmeg
• 1 egg beaten
• ½ cup warm water
• Vegetable oil
• Olive oil

For the Sauce

• 1 T good olive oil
• 1 chopped yellow onion
• 1 ½ t minced garlic
• ½ cup red wine such as Chianti
• 1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
• ½ t parsley flakes (or 1 T chopped fresh)
• 1 ½ t kosher salt
• ½ t pepper
• Of course, 1 ½ pounds GF spaghetti

Mix the ground meats, bread crumbs, parsley, Parmesan, salt, pepper, nutmeg, egg and ½ cup warm water in a bowl.

With your hands, lightly form 2-inch meatballs. Yields 14 – 16 meatballs.

Pour equal amounts of vegetable and olive oil in a large skillet to ¼ inch depth. Heat the oil. Brown the meatballs on medium-low heat in batches (it took me 3 batches). Carefully turn them to brown all sides – tongs work well for this. It takes about 10 minutes for each batch.

Remove the meatballs to a plate and discard the oil, but do not clean the pan.

For the sauce, heat olive oil in the same pan. Add the onion and sauté over medium heat until translucent, 5 – 10 minutes.

Add the garlic and cook for one more minute.

Add the wine and cook on high heat, scraping up the brown bits in the pan, until almost all the liquid evaporates – about 3 minutes.

Stir in the tomatoes, parsley, salt and pepper. At this point I set aside a little of the sauce for the vegetarian in the family.

Return the meatballs to the sauce, cover and simmer on low for about 30 minutes, until meatballs are cooked through.

Serve over cooked spaghetti with grated Parmesan cheese,