The Best Spaghetti Sauce With Meatballs. Growing up, my parents would make spaghetti weekly, it seems. Spaghetti is inexpensive; kids like pasta. It’s messy, but they eat it up. It’s fairly nutritious, it’s filling, they like it, they eat it, they don’t fill up on junk, and they sleep. So, I added spaghetti to the menu and made The Best Spaghetti Sauce With Meatballs.
At first, I found this really great, organic, inexpensive jarred pasta sauce. It wasn’t bad. They liked it, just toss it in a pan, heat it up and pour it over the cooked, drained noodles. Easy peasy.
Then, everyone else started buying it up, and the store didn’t have it very often. I didn’t want to go back to the plain jane pasta sauce I grew up with, so I investigated making my own. The results? And amazing, easy to throw together The Best Spaghetti Sauce With Meatballs! You could totally make it without the meatballs, but they are worth the extra five minutes of prep. You won’t regret making this one, folks, I promise.
The Best Spaghetti Sauce With Meatballs
Ingredients
TO MAKE THE MEATBALLS:
- 1 pound ground beef (minced beef)
- 1 medium egg
- ¼ cup milk
- ½ cup bread crumbs
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 tablespoon parsley - chopped
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ cup Parmesan cheese - grated, not the green can, the real deal
TO MAKE THE SPAGHETTI SAUCE:
- 1 small yellow onion - chopped
- 2 cloves garlic - chopped
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 12- ounce tomato paste
- 2 cups beef stock (beef broth or beef bouillon) - a 14-ounce can is enough
- 1 pint passata or crushed tomatoes (tomato puree with seeds removed)
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 ½ teaspoons dried oregano
- dash dried basil
Instructions
TO MAKE THE SPAGHETTI SAUCE:
- Saute onion and garlic in olive oil in a 5-quart saucepan until the onion is translucent.
- Add tomato paste and beef broth to the pan. Stir until smooth. Add canned tomatoes. Add spices and stir well.
- Turn to low and allow to simmer, uncovered while you make your meatballs. If you don’t want meatballs, you must be crazy (kidding!). You can simmer it for about an hour covered and serve over hot, cooked noodles.
TO MAKE THE MEATBALLS:
- Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl.
- Form and roll meatballs to about the size of a golf ball.
- Drop meatballs into your already prepared (and simmering) sauce. Simmer, covered for about 3 hours. Stir occasionally. You can vent the pan a little if you need it to cook down more (I usually do). Serve over hot, cooked pasta.