Spaghetti and Meatballs is a classic Italian dinner made with beef, sweet Italian sausage and crushed tomatoes, ready in 1 hour 5 minutes. The pot makes 22 to 23 meatballs and serves eight. Everything from the sauce up is built in one pan.
Three slices of white bread soaked in cold water go into the meat, not dry breadcrumbs. That soaked paste is called a panade, and it holds moisture through thirty minutes of simmering. Breadcrumbs do the opposite, pulling water out and tightening everything.
Each meatball gets rolled in flour before it hits the oil, and the excess has to be dusted off. That thin coat is what browns into a crust in two minutes a side. Pull them out underdone, because the last thirty minutes happen in the sauce.
Spaghetti and Meatballs
Course: MainCuisine: ItalianDifficulty: Medium4
servings30
minutes40
minutes300
kcalFifty-six ounces of crushed tomatoes comes from two full cans, which is more sauce than most recipes this size call for. The meatballs are rolled at an inch and a half, about a flat ice cream scoop each.
Ingredients
- For the Meatballs (makes 22 to 23):
3 slices white bread, crusts removed, diced or torn into pieces
2/3 cup cold water
1 lb lean ground beef (7% to 15% fat)
1 lb sweet ground Italian sausage, casings removed
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more to serve
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 large egg
3/4 cup all-purpose flour, to dredge
3 tablespoons light olive oil, to saute
- For the Marinara Sauce:
1 medium yellow onion (1 cup chopped)
4 cloves garlic, minced
56 oz crushed tomatoes (from 2 x 28 oz cans)
2 bay leaves (optional)
Salt and pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons basil, finely minced, plus more to garnish
- To Serve:
1 lb spaghetti
Directions
- Soak the bread: Combine the bread pieces with 2/3 cup cold water and set aside for 5 minutes, then mash with a fork into a paste.
- Mix and roll: In a large bowl or a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, combine the ground beef, sausage, Parmesan, minced garlic, salt, pepper, egg and the mashed bread. Mix until well combined, then form into 1 1/2-inch meatballs and roll in the flour, dusting off the excess.
- Brown in batches: Heat a deep, large, heavy skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat with about 3 tablespoons oil. Add the meatballs in 2 batches without crowding and saute until browned on all sides, about 6 minutes total or 2 minutes per side. Remove and set aside; they will not be cooked through yet.
- Build the sauce: In the same skillet over medium heat, add more oil if needed and saute the chopped onion, stirring often, until soft and golden, about 5 minutes. Add the minced garlic and stir 1 to 2 minutes until fragrant, then stir in the crushed tomatoes and bay leaves and bring to a light boil.
- Simmer and toss: Return the meatballs to the pan, partially cover and cook at a gentle simmer for 30 minutes, turning occasionally. Stir in the basil and season with salt and pepper a few minutes before the end. Meanwhile cook the spaghetti in salted water until al dente, drain, then pour the sauce and meatballs over and toss gently. Garnish with Parmesan and basil.
Nutrition is published by the source at 8 servings of 2 to 3 meatballs each. Remove the bay leaves before serving.
Juicy meatballs come down to two decisions made before the pan heats.
FAQs
Why lean ground beef when fat means flavor?
Seven to fifteen percent fat is the window here, because the pound of sweet Italian sausage alongside it is already rich. Eighty-twenty chuck on top of that renders out and leaves the sauce greasy. The sausage carries the seasoning too, which is why the meatball mix needs only salt and pepper.
Can I bake the meatballs instead of frying them?
You can, at 400 degrees F for about fifteen minutes, though you lose the flour crust that frying builds. Skip the dredge entirely if you bake, since flour needs oil contact to brown. The sauce will also taste thinner, because nothing was browned in the pan first.
My meatballs fell apart in the sauce.
Picture the mix before it was rolled: if it was wet enough to slump, it needed less soaking water or another minute of mixing. The egg binds and the panade holds, but only if the two are properly combined. Chilling the rolled balls twenty minutes firms them before they meet hot oil.
Is 1,112 mg of sodium per serving normal for this?
That figure comes mostly from the sausage and the canned tomatoes, not the teaspoon of salt in the mix. Buying no-salt-added crushed tomatoes cuts roughly a third of it without touching the flavor much. Season the pasta water lightly if you are watching it, since that salt ends up in the bowl too.
How do I freeze this properly?
Freeze the meatballs in sauce and the pasta separately, for up to three months. Spaghetti frozen in sauce turns soft, so undercook it by a minute if you must freeze them together. For a freezer-friendly meat sauce with no rolling involved, a bacon and pork ragu works better.
Do I need two cans of tomatoes for one pound of pasta?
Simmering twenty-three meatballs needs enough liquid to half-submerge them, which one can will not do. The extra sauce also reduces over thirty minutes, so what starts loose finishes thick. If you want a lighter, butter-based option instead, this three ingredient tomato sauce takes a different route.
