Homemade meatballs and sauce with Italian Sausage
Here’s how I do meatballs, sauce, and Italian sausage.
Before we get into it, here’s what you’ll need:
- 2 pounds ground pork
- 2 pounds ground beef
- 1 shallot or 1/2 red onion
- 8 large cloves garlic
- 3 slices of white bread or equivalent amount of sourdough/Italian, etc
- Italian Seasoning, salt, pepper
- 3 eggs
- 1/2 cup of milk
- approximately 10 Italian Sausage links
- 2 pounds of pasta of your choice – 1 pound if you like lots of leftover sauce and meat for meatball and sausage sandwiches (that’s another recipe lol)
- (2) 28 oz cans of crushed tomatoes or “plain tomato sauce”
- 1/2 stick of butter
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- A block of Parmigiano Reggiano and a block of Peccorino Romano and a way to grate them both
- Balsamic Vinegar (don’t leave it out, trust me)
Meatballs:
1:1 ratio pork to beef (2 pounds each). Soak 3 slices of white bread (crust removed) in seasoned milk. I add garlic salt, a couple of minced cloves of garlic, Italian seasoning, and fresh cracked pepper to the milk to season it.
Finely dice 1 shallot. If you can’t get a shallot, use half of a small red onion and finely dice that.
Mince 4 large cloves garlic fine.
Crack three eggs into the mix.
Italian seasoning, salt, pepper.
About a 1/4 cup of freshly grated/shredded Parmigiano Reggiano or Peccorino Romano (or both combined).
Combine them all together and mix with loose hands. “Loose Hands” means don’t over mix and don’t squeeze everything together.
Let the mixture sit for about a half hour in the fridge to meld together.
Portion the mix out into the size of meatball you prefer onto a baking sheet or roasting pan. Mine are about 3-4 ounces each. Cook at 375 for about 15 minutes until they form a bit of a crust on the outside.
Sauce:
My sauce is a secret recipe, as with most Italians, but here’s a rough draft to get you there…
Start by browning the Italian Sausage in a little olive oil. Depending on how many sausages you have, and how wide the pot is, you may have to do this in batches. Once the first batch is browned on the outside, you can reserve them in a big bowl for later. They do not need to be cooked through, and it’s better if they are not as they will render into the sauce and provide some serious deliciousness.
Once the sausage is all browned and removed from the pot, there will be some brown marks all over the pot. It’s fine.
Now, melt a half stick of butter and add 2-3 tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil in a large enough enough pot to hold the sauce and all the meat. It should be at least a 4 quart pot, preferably 6.
Finely chop a half of an onion and let them sweat in the butter. I use red or sweet yellow onions. Lightly salt them when you add them to draw out some moisture.
In the middle of the onion sweat time, mince 4 large cloves of garlic and add them to the pot. Don’t let them burn, but saute’ until they get a little tan.
While the onions and garlic are going, add a tablespoon of Italian seasoning and a teaspoon of salt.
Immediately dump two 28 ounce cans of your favorite crushed tomatoes or “plain sauce” (just tomatoes and salt – and maybe basil) into the pot CAREFULLY as they will spit back at you when they hit the hot oil/butter.
Stir to combine.
Place the meatballs and sausage in the sauce, along with any juices or drippings that accumulated in the cooking process and turn the sauce down to low on the burner.
Add a tablespoon of Balsamic Vinegar, a tablespoon of sugar, a tablespoon of Italian Seasoning, and a teaspoon of cracked black pepper.
Let it simmer for an hour on low. Taste often and season as needed.
Pasta: You choose the pasta you’d prefer. I like regular spaghetti for this, but I also can do linguine or even rigatoni. Any of those would work well with this combination. Cook the pasta to your desired ‘doneness’, drain, and plate.
Add the sauce and meat as you like. You can never go wrong with topping with some freshly grated Parm and Romano, and a little cracked pepper.
Here are a few pics of the process. Please forgive the lower quality, as I only have my phone and I’m not a photographer.
