Go to meals: Meatballs

I have professed my love for eating and cooking Italian food many times over.  I know spaghetti and meatballs is not really all that 'traditional' but hey, its red sauce dining, North American style at its finest.  I usually make a  big pot of meatballs that we can eat through out the week on pasta or in a sandwich.  If I make too much, like I usually do, I will portion out and freeze for a easy weeknight dinner when time is tight.  I can tell you there is no better smell to fill your home with than this pot of meatballs slowly simmering away on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

 Meatballs

The mise en place

1/2 lb of ground veal
1/2 lb of ground pork
1/2 lb of ground beef
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1small onion finely chopped (cut really really small)
1 1/2 cup of italian style bread crumbs
1 cup of grated parmesan
1 large egg
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp salt
1tsp pepper

Tomato Sauce
2 cans of premium plum tomatoes (spend the extra $1 to get good canned tomatoes)
1 small onion - finely chopped
1 clove of garlic - finely chopped
basil

Start with the tomato sauce so it has time to simmer. 
Heat a large heavy bottom pot or dutch oven to medium heat (I use my 4 gallon Le Crueset)
Add onion and saute until it becomes translucent - don't brown
Add garlic and saute for 20 seconds - don't burn it
Add cans of tomatoes
You can crush tomato by hand before you add into pot for a more rustic sauce or use a hand blender to puree like I do.
Let sauce simmer on low while you make the meatballs.

For the meatballs I start by making a soffritto of sorts.  I put the finely chopped onions and garlic in a pan with olive oil. Cook onion and garlic in olive oil at medium-low heat for 10 minutes.  This will soften the onion and garlic, turn it translucent and carmelize a bit - don't burn it.

Set onion/garlic oil to the side and let cool.
In a large mixing bowl, add meat, bread crumbs, egg, salt, pepper, cheese, and onion/garlic oil.
Mix really well with hands until all ingredients are well mixed together.
Using a loose hand, form about a tablespoon of meat into small balls (stay light and don't press meatballs to hard)

 Once all meatballs are formed, brown meatballs in a skillet with a little oil in small batches.***

Once meatball has been browned, put directly in tomato sauce and let simmer for at least 45 minutes - 1 hour. I like to let it simmer on really low heat for a couple of hours so all the tomato sauce and meatballs cook nicely together. 

I finish with torn fresh basil in the sauce. Serve with pasta, on its own or in a meatball sub.

*** if you don't want to fry the meatballs, you can put meatballs on baking sheet and bake in a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes and then put them into the sauce to simmer.