ISO: The ultimate spaghetti and meatballs recipe

[sicklyscott]

I decided to cook myself a birthday dinner and would like to use the roasted tomato purée I made from my garden. I'd like to make everything from scratch including the pasta. Would anyone like to share any recipes? Sauce? Spaghetti? Meatballs?

Thanks!
Scott

 

[texasgirl]

I know you will get answers, just be patient. I don't know any from scratch, I'm so sorry. My momma took her recipe to her grave, unfortunately. It was the best I had ever had. Nothing has compared since.

 

[PanchoHambre]

Ask any Italian and its Mom's.... everyone is diffrerent and there never really is a recipe per see just a method and a feel.

with your garden tomato puree you have a good start.

You basically want to make a ragu naolitano... but Italian-American style with meatballs.... I would google it and look at a bunch of different recipies and take what you like from them.... this is basically a stew so there is no right way.

I can't give you a recipe but here are some tips

For the meatballs (use a mix ground pork/veal/beef in thirds)
Use grated reggiano and use fresh basil

Brown the meatballs... also brown both hot and sweet italian sausages for adding to the ragu

When you make the ragu simmer low and slow with the meat in it... this is Sunday Sauce making it is a day long event (or at least morning long... traditionally sunday supper was early afternoon)

Start your ragu by sauteing an base of aromatics in olive oil before you add the tomato (onion, garlic, celery, carrot, peppers whatever you want really)... these can be diced fine so they dissapear or thicker cut for a chunky sauce (i like non-chunky) If you are going tro use wine use it here to deglaze dont just dump it in the sauce.

Since your tomatos are garden tomatos you may not need a sweetener but usually something is added to sweeten the sauce... this can be sugar, honey, rasins carrots, wine.... everyone does it differently.

here is a cool article on ragu northern and souther stule (Spaghetti and Meatballs you are looking at the american adaptation of the southern) Two Men, Two Italys, Two Ragouts - New York Times

Just remember everybody's mom's is best and even if she gives you her recipe she rarely surrenders all the secrets.

 

[CookinNow]

Just remember everybody's mom's is best and even if she gives you her recipe she rarely surrenders all the secrets.

That could be the reason I can't duplicate Mom's recipe. Her spaghetti and meatballs are great. She shared her recipe with me but I can't seem to get it the same as hers. I like mine but hers is much better. Sigh.

 

[vyapti]

Grandma Louise's Spaghetti

This sauce has been passed down from my great, great grandmother. She grew up in Italy and Croatia and spent her life in the states running Italian Restaurants. The sauce is very hearty, one quart will mix with 1/2 lb of pasta. One pound will easily feed 6 adults, especially with meatballs.

It is also good without meat, which I make with relative frequency.

Spaghetti Sauce
3 lbs hamburger
4 medium onions, VERY finely chopped
5 stalks celery, VERY finely chopped
1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped
½ lb bacon, cut up (optional)
6 cloves garlic, chopped
½ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp cloves
¼ tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
2 tbs sugar
1 cup dry red wine
1 6 oz can tomato paste
2 15 oz cans tomato sauce
2 28 oz cans whole, peeled tomatoes
2 lbs spaghetti noodles

Meatballs
2 lbs hamburger
4 eggs
6 slices dry bread
garlic, salt & pepper to taste



SAUCE: In a large (8 quart) pan, cook chopped bacon until crisp. Do not drain grease. Scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to release drippings. Add hamburger and brown. Again, do not drain grease. Add all of the spices and red wine. Remove from heat and cover. Let stand for 5 minutes.

Return to the stove, over medium-high heat. Add the celery, onions, parsley and garlic. Cook until the onions are soft and clear (about 20 minutes). Add the whole tomatoes and their juice, one can at a time, then the tomato sauce and tomato paste. After adding each can, allow the sauce to return to a boil before adding the next can.

Cover and simmer, for 2-3 hours. Stir occasionally and break up whole tomatoes when doing so. Do not stir the last 20 minutes of cooking.

When sauce is done, remove from heat. Pools of grease will have risen to the surface. Carefully skim all of the grease. Stir and serve with 2 pounds of spaghetti.

MEATBALLS: Crack eggs into a bowl with raw hamburger. Moisten dry bread slices (if you don't have dry bread, toast them in the oven to dry) with water. Crumble bread into the bowl. Season with salt, garlic and pepper. Mix with your hands and form into 2" balls.

Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 350° for about 15 minutes, until the meat is thoroughly cooked. Stir the meatballs into the spaghetti sauce for the last hour of cooking.

 

[QSis]

Scott, first, Happy Birthday!

Second, if you have lovely fresh puree from homegrown tomatoes, you may want to consider a simple sauce such as this one Cooks.com - Recipe - Fresh Tomato Cream Sauce to go with your homemade pasta.

As wonderful as the recipes are that have been posted above, I'm thinking that the fresh flavor of your puree will be lost with all the heavy flavors of meats, etc. And those complex sauces may also mask the flavor of your homemade pasta.

However, if it's spaghetti and meatballs you have a hankering for, and you choose one of the recipes posted or something similar, save your homegrown puree for another time, and use storebought pasta (dried or fresh). In that case, let your sauce and meatballs be the stars of the meal.

Lee

 

[velochic]

I agree with Lee. I grow a large garden and can a lot of my bounty. In the summertime, when I have fresh tomatoes, I use them for quickly sauteed sauces. I'll just chop a tomato, some garlic and shallot... saute in lots of olive oil for a few minutes, then toss in fresh basil at the end before adding the pasta (which I've never made from scratch in my life, unless you count egg noodles for chicken and noodles). The sauce is like a tomato-y Aglio e Olio minus the red pepper. I use my canned tomatoes in the wintertime when I want a hearty sauce. Mine is similar to those hearty winter sauces posted above and I use pork and beef.

Are your roasted tomatoes canned or do you live in a climate where you are getting fresh tomatoes right now?

 

[Luvs2Cook]

Happy Birthday Scott.

I think thats the fun part of spaghetti sauce. You can alter the recipe in so many different ways and it still comes out good. As for the recipes passed from generation to generation, I don't think any of them used a 'recipe' per se. It was all by the look and feel and also by what they had in stock. Meatballs, I always use 2 or 3 different kinds of ground meat.

 

[sicklyscott]

Thanks for all the responses and well wishes!

Here's my plan of attack for today:

Sauce - The roasted tomatoes I have are from the summer time that I roasted, pureed and froze. I am going to use those in the sauce. My plan is to sweat some onions, carrots, celery in some butter, saute some garlic, de-glaze with some dry wine (not sure of red vs. white yet, but probably red due to the meatballs), throw in the tomato with some of the basic italian herbs and then add in some of the meatballs for some extra flavor. Doesn't sound too hard right?

Meatballs - I just picked up some pork/veal/beef mixture and will combine that with half a package of frozen/thawed spinach, garlic, basil, parm, egg, and bread crumbs. I'm thinking about browning then finishing in the oven.

Pasta - whatever recipe i can find, its basically flour and water with some salt, i believe the pasta attachment i got for my stand mixer has a recipe.

Garlic Bread - I'm thinking about making a loaf from scratch, although I haven't decided if I have time.

I'll let you all know how it turns out and how I changed any of these recipes.

 

[Luvs2Cook]

oooh, those meatballs w/ the spinach sound terrific, can't wait to hear how they turn out. I'll try that next time I do my meatball recipe, thanks for the idea!

 

[PanchoHambre]

Scott sounds like a plan....

Watch the moisture from the spinach in the meatballs... maybe you need to adjust for it... of course if meatballs fall apart in the sauce... just makes the sauce tasty

enjoy!

 

[sicklyscott]

Just a quick update, the sauce is now finished is is perfect (really impressed with myself )

I took notes, I'll update this thread later with the final recipes etc

 

[Luvs2Cook]

Congrats. We'll be waiting for the 'notes'.

 

[kitchenelf]

I know it's too late but for meatballs a blend of meats (beef, pork, veal) is key, IMHO. Also key is all the Italian herbs, finely chopped onions, parmesan cheese, milk, and eggs.

I can't wait to see how you ended up making your sauce!

 

[sicklyscott]

Again, thank you everyone for the input, I really appreciate all your help. The dinner turned out fantastic and I can't wait to do it again when garden overflows with tomatoes and herbs

So I wanted to share with you all the different recipes I used for the pasta, meatballs and sauce. In the end everything tasted wonderful, I was a bit worried about the sauce over-powering the taste of the meatballs and fresh pasta but it all seemed to balance well.

The recipe for the meatballs I used are as follows:

1.5 lbs of beef/pork/veal mixture
1/2 package of frozen spinach
3/4 C of freshly grated parmagian cheese (can't spell, sorry)
1/3 C bread crumbs
1.5 T of fresh basil
1.5 T of fresh parsley
1 T garlic powder
1.5 t kosher salt
1 egg

After mixing it all up I formed balls that were approx. 1.5 ounces a peice, rolled them in more breadcrumbs and put them on a baking sheet. I baked at 400 degrees for 20 mins. They were perfectly cooked but were a bit fragile (not sure if it needs more binding agents or if it was too wet with the spinach) but they tasted amazing.

For the pasta, I used the following:

4 eggs
3.5 C sifted flour
1 t salt
1 T water

I mixed that up, let it rest for 20 mins and then used the pasta maker attachment for the stand mixer to roll and cut. I boiled in salted water for 5 mins, came out perfect.

Now for the sauce, let me first reiterate that I had previously de-seeded, roasted and pureed 11 lbs of garden fresh tomatoes last summer and froze them. After thawing the two containers out I was left with 76 ounces of pureed tomatoes, around that I created the following recipe:

76 ounces roasted tomato puree
3 carrots
3 celery stalks
1 medium onion
10 cloves garlic
1/3 stick of butter
1/3 C Chianti wine (red wine)
fresh oregano
fresh rosemary
fresh thyme
fresh parsley
fresh basil
salt
red pepper flakes

Here's how it all went down.... I first chopped up the carrots, onion and celery into very small peices, I dropped the butter into the pot and let that melt and start to foam, I then added the veggies along with the garlic and let "sweat" until everything was nice and tender. I took 5 meatballs from above and browned them in the bottom of the pot as well. Once the meatballs were browned and the veggies were soft enough I deglazed the pot with the wine. After scraping all those good brown bits off the bottom of the pot I added in the tomatoes and fresh herbs along with some salt and red pepper flakes. I brought all that up to simmer and let it cook for about 2 hours. I then took out the stick blender and pureed up all the veggies and meatballs, I think this step was crucial in the whole process. The puree really thickened the sauce nicely while also breaking up the meat and adding the taste to the entire pot. I then added in quite a bit more basil, let that simmer for another 30 minutes and then seasoned with salt and red pepper to my liking.

Now I realize that the recipe wasn't anything special, I'm sure everyone has seen it before and I really didn't do anyhting much different than most people suggested here. I will tell you though that I think the success of the sauce can be contributed to a few things:

1. The fresh herbs were amazing. The one that really stuck out was the thyme, it really gave it a fresh taste without overdoing it. This is a powerful herb and it can ruin things so be careful with it.
2. The meatballs that were comprised of pork, veal and beef really added a nice depth to the sauce. I wasn't planning on adding them originally but I'm glad I did in the end.
3. The stick blender was key! It really thickened up the sauce and got rid of the "lumps" and made the sauce taste much more uniform. It also allowed the carrots to add sweetness to the sauce.

If there was 1 thing I'd do different it would be to take the meatballs out of the pot before I used the stick blender. The texture of the sauce with the itty bitty meat specs mixed in wasn't very pleasant (although it tasted great). The other option would have been to just add more meat, then it would have seemed to belong.

All in all, it was a perfect birthday dinner. I was amazed with everything, definately one of the best meals I've ever cooked.

Please feel free to add any questions or comments

 

[PanchoHambre]

Now I realize that the recipe wasn't anything special, I'm sure everyone has seen it before and I really didn't do anything much different than most people suggested here..

All in all, it was a perfect birthday dinner. I was amazed with everything, definitely one of the best meals I've ever cooked.

Scott...there is certainly nothing un-special about making a great tomato sauce...especially one made with tomatoes from your own garden. IMHO that and roasting a perfect chicken are among the most wonderful simple things you can make.

Being of Italian descent... Ragu is one of the most important things to do and do well.... family legend is built around this stuff.

Your recipe/method sounds fantastic I am glad you were happy with it.