Italian Meatballs and Red Sauce
Sauce:
˝ medium size onion, diced fine
3 cloves garlic, minced.
Two small cans of tomato paste, 7 oz size
or
1 can of paste and 1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes
6 cans of water (3 to 1, water to paste)
˝ Tbsp Italian Seasoning
˝ cup grated Parmesan cheese
˝ tsp sugar
Meatballs:
˝ lb ground beef
˝ lb ground pork
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
˝ Tbsp Italian Seasoning
˝ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg, beaten
2 Tbsp dehydrated onions
˝ tsp garlic powder
Salt and Pepper to taste
In a large pot or fry pan, sauté onion in olive oil until golden. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add tomato paste/tomatoes, water, Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, parmesan cheese, and sugar. Bring to a light boil over low heat.
Meanwhile, place ground beef, ground
pork, breadcrumbs, egg, dehydrated onions, Italian seasoning, garlic powder,
parmesan cheese, salt and pepper in large bowl. Mix meatball mixture with hands until blended. Form small meatballs about 1.5 inches in
diameter, by rolling meat chunks between the palms of your hands. Place meatballs one-by-one into a frying pan
set over medium heat with some olive oil.
Cook meatballs as you make them.
When a meatball is brown all over, transfer to Tomato Sauce pot. Continue until all meatballs are formed and
cooked and now submerged in sauce. (As
an alternate, you can place the meatballs on a baking sheet and bake them for
20 minutes in a 350 degree oven.)
Cook a minimum of one hour. 2-3 hours is even better. You can also cook this dish in an Instant Pot in less than an hour. Set to Manual and 15 minutes time and let steam release naturally.
Remove the meatballs from the sauce and place in a pot to keep warm. Taste the sauce and add salt, pepper, sugar as needed. To enhance and deepen the flavors, consider adding 1 TBS Beef Better Than Bouillon and 2 TBS heavy cream. Reduce sauce to desired thickness.
When almost ready to serve, heat a pot of water to make the pasta. Cook your choice of pasta and when completed, add sauce to drained pasta and mix in the pot until all stands or pieces of pasta are covered with sauce. Plate pasta, and add extra sauce and meatballs to each. Grate fresh parmesan cheese over pasta and meatballs. Serve.
Variation:
Add 1 Italian Sausage to sauce and cook with meatballs for added flavor.