Comforting Rao's Meatballs in Marinara Sauce Recipe
Gretel Shaw
I love Italian cuisine and I think Rao's Restaurant serves one of the best authentic Italian dishes. I replicated their meatballs in marinara sauce recipe and I love how they turned out.
Place a saucepan on medium heat and add olive oil. Soften minced onions and garlic for 2 to 3 minutes when the oil is hot.
Add canned tomatoes to the pan. Remove the skins of fresh tomatoes and add them as well.
Bring to boil and lower the heat so that the mixture slowly simmers. Let it simmer without a lid for 45 minutes and stir every 10 minutes so that the tomatoes begin to break and about half of the liquid is vaporized.
Add honey and season with salt and pepper to taste. Add torn basil leaves just before serving.
Meatball Instructions
Mix all the ingredients except the oil with the ground meat. Make the meatball mixture nice and even with your hands. If you are using only beef (as we did), you can safely check the seasoning and add salt and pepper, if needed. The mixture should be fluffy and very moist. Roll 8 large meatballs with wet hands.
Pour the oil into a large saucepan and bring it to 150 degrees Celsius. Put the meatballs in the oil. The oil level should go to the middle of the meatballs. Fry the meatballs from one side for about 10 minutes (the reason why the oil is not very hot is that the big meatballs' interior cooks properly without burning them). Turn the other side and cook for another 10 minutes.
Make some pasta (check out our previous post for instructions on how to make fresh pasta from scratch) and serve the meatballs with the marinara sauce.