Meatballs and spaghetti

[giggler]

yesterday at a "high end grocery", here, we splurged for 4 nice big "large meatballs, and a Jar of their special sauce"..the meatballs are Raw..

How do I cook these?..

it looks like..brown them in olive oil.. then cook them in the sauce for about 2 hours?..

serve over noodles..

I usually really "Spice Up" jarred sauce.. but maybe I should just leave it alone?

Thanks, Eric, Austin Tx.

 

[DaveSoMD]

You could bake them in the oven then simmer them in the sauce just till the sauce is heated through.

 

[Andy M.]

Brown them in oil. While they are browning, spice up the sauce then add the browned meatballs and simmer for 2 hours.

 

[danpeikes]

taste the sauce and modify to taste. cook the meatballs in the sauce on the stovetop on a low heat.

 

[luvs]

the meatballs- they could be sauteed in various fats, although i prefer olive. they can be baked, too- my BF bakes his, & my Pap would dunk his into his sauce sans frying.
the sauce- we season & reseason throughout cooking- a sauce that was great a half-hour ago may well be too salty after simmering. or too watery regardless of simmering. etcetera.

 

[Nicholas Mosher]

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.

Put the meatballs in a pot small enough so that when you pour the sauce over them they are covered. Do this, and place a cover on it.

Put the pot in the oven for 4 hours (stirring once half-way).

Remove, cool for a bit, and eat.

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Meatballs soften once cooked past 3 hours (even ground meat), as they are usually made from tough cuts with lot's of collagen-laden fibers. The extra hour allows them to reach the simmering point when placed in the oven cold. The gelatin released also makes the sauce that much better. I don't brown the meatballs, as it changes their texture. It's a small trade-off I make (and prefer) over the slightly better sauce flavor yielded through the browning maillard reaction.

This cooking method is also the easiest (and cleanest) one to implement. If after three hours the sauce appears a bit thin, leave the cover off for the last hour. Oh, and cooking in the oven applies even heat to the pot, and minimizes/eliminates scorching or sticking of meatballs/sauce to the bottom of the pot.