and the secret to the perfect tomato sauce and meatballs issss...

spaghetti and meatballs - done time and time again - boring right?  quite the contrary oh foodie lovers and friends for this dish is straight from my nonnas kitchen.  What makes it so special you might ask? For anyone that has had a tomato sauce straight out of an old italian womans kitchen, you may notice something distinctly different from most sauces you taste.  You also may have noticed that most of them cook their tomato sauce for hours upon hours on end (contrary to some of the more contemporary sauce makers such as the scarpetta spaghetti I posted a while ago).  Well - this blog will answer all these questions for you.  The secret my friend?  They cook a piece of red meat IN the sauce the entire time.  I'm not talking about dropping in the meatballs, or making a bolognese - i mean taking a piece of steak and dropping that baby whole into your pot of simmering tomato sauce.  THIS my friends - will give it that extra something we all wondered about for so long (or was that just me?)...

You will need: (serves 4)
For the sauce:
2 - 28 oz cans of san marzano tomatoes
1 head of garlic (peeled and chopped)
1 large spanish onion (chopped)
large handful of fresh basil
3/4 cup of tomato paste
1 piece of red meat (could be a striploin, a cut of ribeye, whatever you want)
salt to taste
EVOO
500g spaghetti


For the meatballs:
1 lb ground pork
1 lb ground veal
1 spanish onion & 5 cloves of garlic (finely chopped and cooked until soft)
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 cup breadcrumbs
2 tbsp dried oregano
2-3 tbsp dried or fresh Italian parsley
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
** note you will have some extra meatballs - unless you are hubs and u eat everything**

To begin let's get the sauce going.  Drop a couple tbsp's of EVOO into a large pot and sweat your onions and garlic until soft over medium high heat.  Add the two cans of san marzano tomatos and bring to a boil and then turn the heat down to a simmer.  Using a hand mixer - puree the tomatoes using a pulse.  Cover.

Season your piece of meat with salt and pepper and in a fry pan on high heat, sear it on both sides until just golden brown (1 minute per side).  Place the meat into your sauce, add your basil, cover and let simmer (total cook time will be about 3 - 3 1/2 hours)

Now move on to your meatballs.  Mix all of the ingredients in a large bowl and work it all together with your hands.  Do this for several minutes - you want to realllyyyyy make everything super tender, moist and cohesive.  Form meatballs about the size of a golf ball and set aside.  In a large fry pan (working in batches so you do not crowd the meatballs) on medium high heat - sear the meatballs in EVOO on all sides until lightly golden brown.  As each meatball sears, move them to a plate lined with paper towel.  Set the batch aside when complete.  When you have about 2 hours left on your sauce until the 3.5 hour mark - drop in all your meatballs to the sauce and add your tomato paste.  Give everything a good stir and let the whole mixture continue to cook for 2 hours (longer will not hurt it!).

When you are ready to eat - cook up your pasta to al dente in a pot of boiling salted water.  At this point your sauce should be nice and thick, the meatballs will be fluffy and the piece of meat should be so tender it may even fall into pieces in the sauce (yum).

Ladel out some sauce over the spaghetti and stir, then plate each portion with some extra sauce and some meatballs.

Serve & Enjoy :)

xo Chef Natty