Meatball Sauce

Well hello again! How's this for progress, two posts in one night! Now we're going to talk about meatball sauce. The hubby was just given an amazing Italian cookbook from 1962 and we've been wanting to try one of these recipes for a while. I'm telling you, this will blow any meatball recipe you have out of the water! Honestly, I wasn't sure about soaking the bread in water (not milk??) and no egg in the meatball (whaa?) but the meatballs were amazing, tender, and juicy. Be patient and check it out:

Start with two slices of white bread - soak them in one cup of water for a few minutes then mash them up with a fork. Get the bread nice and smooth, then press as much of the water out with the fork. You can also pat it with a paper towel to get the water out. Put the bread in a mixing bowl with 1/2 pound of ground beef, 1/2 pound of ground pork, two cloves of minced garlic (I microplaned it, if you don't have a microplane get one right now), 2 teaspoons of fresh basil, one teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of pepper, and a 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese. Use your hands and mix everything together - be sure to take the time and really incorporate all of the ingredients. Roll the mixture into walnut sized balls, and preheat a large saute pan with three tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Brown the meatballs lightly, then add 1/2 cup of minced onions, 2 cloves of garlic (again microplaned), one 28 ounce can of pureed tomatoes (you can used diced, I prefer pureed for the texture), one cup of water, one teaspoon of salt, 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flake, and a few grinds of black pepper. Stir well (but carefully, don't rip the precious precious meatballs), then bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to low, then simmer this pot of delicious for 90 minutes. Yeah, I said it: 90 minutes. It's. So. Worth. It.

I served this amazing sauce with a pappardelle (long flat noodle that is wider than fettuccine), but you can use any pasta that you like. After the sauce cooks for 90 minutes, add a few tablespoons of chopped parsley. Serve over your pasta with the parsley and some grated parm.

In my humble opinion these may be the best meatballs I've ever made (sorry Tyler!). Honestly, the sauce was just delicious, and the meatballs plain old rad. Do try this, you won't be sorry!

BFF,

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