Spaghetti with meatballs

[bif]

http://cookingwiththemark.blogspot.com

Ingredients

Meatballs
1 pound ground turkey
1/2 pound ground pork
1 carrot, grated
2 eggs
1 1/2 c bread crumbs
1/2 c cold water
1/2 T ground fennel seeds
1 t garlic powder

Sauce
1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
2 T tomato paste
3 garlic cloves crushed
1 medium onion, chopped
1 T oregano
Black pepper to taste
2 c water
1 c dry red wine

Directions
Combine all the meatball ingredients and knead with your hands. Form into golf ball sized meatballs. Place on a pizza pan and bake at 400° for 10 to 15 minutes. Then broil until nicely browned. Set meatballs aside and make the sauce. In a large frying pan, saute onions until translucent. Add garlic and cook for an additional 2 to 3 minutes. Then add all the remaining ingredients and simmer for 1/2 hour. Place meatballs in the pan and cook for 5 to 10 minutes. Meanwhile, cook spaghetti until done. Serve meatballs and sauce over pasta with a generous portion of grated parmesan cheese.

[intheflow]

1. I've never been a fan of the pan-fried meatballs.

I prefer to boil them in the sauce while the sauce is cooking. Gives the sauce a meatier flavor, and the meatballs don't have a hard crust around them. This makes them better suited for meatball sandwiches as leftovers, imho. The really easy way to do this and make sure they're thoroughly cooked is to make the sauce in a crock pot, but if making on the stove, drop the meatballs into the sauce when it boils (trying not to stack them) and boil for 20-25 minutes. I wouldn't recommend stirring them into the sauce until at least 10 minutes into the cook time, otherwise they might break apart.

Edited to add: I like the idea of adding shredded carrots to the meatballs. Had never heard of that before, might try it next time.

[MiddleFingerMom]

4. MiddleFingerMomMom would do this for meat sauce, too...

.
.
... using relatively lowfat ground beef and refrigerating the sauce overnight in order to
skim all the congealed orange fat off the top of the sauce the following day. She would
also break the ground beef up as finely as possible. The sauce would simmer all day.
.
Her sauce was ubersimple -- tomato paste and tomato sauce thinned out with water,
about 5 or 6 whole garlic cloves removed before serving (I put a toothpick carefully
through mine and stir gently or they'll slip off), crushed red pepper to taste and grated
Parmesan cheese added directly to the sauce in the last 5 minutes or so of cooking.
.
It's the best I've ever had and it's something I haven't been able to replicate no matter
how often I've tried.
.
.
.

[intheflow]

5. Yes! and Yes!

to the low-fat meat (I usually use 3/4 buffalo to 1/4 pork or sausage), and yes to letting it cool to scrape off the layer of fat. Always tastes better the next day after it's sat, anyway.

Also, food almost always tastes better when made by a cook who loves you.

[cbayer]

6. I also prefer this to meatballs and I like to use sweet italian sausage meat.

But I do like Swedish Meatballs in that yummy cream sauce.

[kentauros]

2. The red sauce looks good.

I'll have to try it

[yellerpup]

3. Very nice, bif!

I could eat a whole bunch of that!

[cbayer]

7. Thanks for this. I have never found a bottled sauce that comes even close

to a slowly simmered home made tomato sauce.

[The empressof all]

8. Helpful Hint...."Fry" your paste

Your sauce will taste "richer" and more complex if you add the paste and spices to the pan after you cook the onion and sweat the garlic... Cook the paste and use it to deglaze the pan ....keep stirring it around until you see it get a shade or two darker than the "raw" paste. Then add your tomatoes. Bring to a light boil, turn to simmer and add your meatballs.

Roasted Meatballs are the way to go...That's the way my grandma did it too....

[bif]

9. Thans. I'll try that

the next time I make meatballs.