Spaghetti And 3-Meat Meatballs. The ultimate Sunday meal, in my opinion. It is such a classic dinner and is one of those meals that just makes you happy. On a rainy Sunday, when you just don’t want to do much of anything but sit around the house and stay warm and dry, it’s the perfect meal. You can start it early in the day and just let it simmer until you are ready to serve this Spaghetti And 3-Meat Meatballs. It is also a great meal to get your kids involved with, too (Rolling those meatballs out can be hard work).
The recipe for my Spaghetti And 3-Meat Meatballs starts with the type of meat that I use. Instead of just using ground beef, I actually like to use a trifecta of a pound of 8/20 (eighty percent pure ground sirloin and twenty percent fat), a half of a pound of ground pork, and one pound of ground veal. If you can’t find ground veal or just don’t want to use it, that is completely fine. Just add another half pound of pork and another half pound of that 80/20 ground beef. I happen to really like the flavor that the ground veal brings, so I do suggest at least trying it one time before you make an opinion about it.
The Perfect Spaghetti And 3-Meat Meatballs
Print RecipeIngredients
- TO MAKE THE TRADITIONAL MEATBALLS:
- 1 pound 80/20 ground beef
- 1 pound ground veal
- 1/2 pound ground pork
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 cup fresh or packaged breadcrumbs (I use Italian style) soaked in 1 cup of milk
- 1 egg
- 1 sweet yellow onion, sauteed until sweated out and translucen
- 2 cloves minced garlic cooked with the onion
- 1 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped finely
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons cracked black pepper
- TO MAKE THE HOMEMADE SPAGHETTI SAUCE:
- 1 whole sweet onion, chopped
- 3 cloves fresh garlic, minced
- 2 28-ounce cans crushed tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/2 cup dry white wine (Chardonnay or Pinot Grigio are great choices)
- 1 1/2 tablespoons salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pepper
- Parmigiano-Reggiano rind
Instructions
TO MAKE THE TRADITIONAL MEATBALLS:
1. Mix your meats in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.
2. Finely chop a sweet yellow onion with two cloves of garlic (minced) and cook them over medium heat with a tablespoon of olive oil until they become soft and translucent.
3. After that, soak one cup of your breadcrumbs in one cup of milk until the crumbs soak up all of the milk. This makes for a really moist meatball.
4. Once that is complete, you will want to mix up all of the ingredients with a fork. The reason why I use a fork is that you don’t necessarily want to mix everything. You just want to make sure that everything is evenly incorporated with each other and the meat is broken up.
Over-mixing can actually create a tough meatball, which is what we are trying to avoid.
5. After your meat and additions are just mixed together, you will want to start forming them into balls about the size of a golf ball. You can use a smaller sized ice cream scoop for that, or just use your judgement and try to get the most even sizes that you can.
6. After you have formed them, in a large saute pan, get 2 tablespoons of olive oil hot and sear each side of your meatballs for about two minutes per side to get a nice crust on them. After all of them are done, set your oven at 400°F and let them cook in there for an additional ten minutes, just allowing them to cook the rest of the way through.
TO MAKE THE HOMEMADE SPAGHETTI SAUCE:
Now, the tomato sauce is super simple. It is just a very standard recipe with a small addition to it that makes it delicious.
1. I start with the same pan that I used to brown my meatballs in because you never want to waste all of those delicious brown bits that are stuck to the bottom of your pan. I heat that pan up with clean olive oil and throw in one diced sweet onion and three cloves of minced garlic. I cook those until they are just becoming brown.
2. Add in a big pinch of salt and pepper at the beginning of cooking the onions and garlic because when you are making sauces, especially red sauces, you want to season every single layer of it. Developing flavors will really help your end product taste super delicious rather than adding all of your seasonings at the last minute.
3. Once your onions and garlic are just shy of brown, you will want to add in a pinch of red pepper flakes. Those give a nice little bite to the sauce. Again, we are developing flavors here.
4. While you’re at it, also add in a tablespoon of tomato paste. I like to buy the paste in the squeeze tubes. That way, you can just screw the cap back on it and save it for the next time you need it rather than having a half-empty can of it in the back of the fridge.
5. After that, to deglaze a pan and bring all of those little brown bits up off of the bottom, add in one half of a cup of a good dry white wine. PLEASE don’t use cooking wine. There are so many inexpensive, good wines that you can buy to both cook with and drink. The reason why you always want to cook with a wine that you would also be willing to drink is that when you add the wine to anything, you are cooking all of the alcohol out of it and concentrating its flavor, so it only makes sense to use a wine that you would also enjoy having a glass of along with the meal.
6. Once your wine has been reduced by half, add in two twenty-eight ounce cans of crushed tomatoes. I like using San Marzano tomatoes because they have a really lovely sweet flavor, but any crushed tomato will work just fine. After all of your ingredients are in the pot, turn your heat down to medium-low.
7. Now, here comes that small addition that makes this sauce so good. When you buy a block of Parmigiano-Reggiano, always get a piece that has the rind on it. You don’t want to eat it, but you’ll want to freeze it and when you make any kind of red sauce, add it to the pot. As the sauce simmers, the cheese rind releases all of those natural oils from the cheese and creates this salty, nutty, buttery addition that will make your marinara SO. GOOD.
8. I let my sauce cook down for about one hour on medium-low heat with a lid on the pot. When your sauce has about ten minutes left, take out the rind and add in your meatballs and put the lid back on the pot. Bam, your sauce is complete. Unless you want to tear some fresh basil in there, and if so, after that, you can say Bam.
The pasta is completely up to you. Try to stay on the path of long kinds of pasta like Spaghetti or Bucatini. Also, have a good amount of freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese handy for sprinkling on top!
