Italian Meatballs and Sauce

So, here it is.  THE pasta sauce and meatballs my mother made every week while I was growing up.  I almost wrote marinara, but my pasta sauce is not a true marinara, because it is flavored from the meat I cook it with.

The Sauce

Sautee in pot:
One half onion diced
garlic clove diced
Olive oil (extra virgin)

Note:  My mother always added a half of a green pepper diced also.  I have experimented with fresh mushrooms too.  Not everyone loves mushrooms though.

Add:
4 large cans of crushed tomatoes
1 large can of diced tomatoes
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon each of parsley, (more if fresh) basil, oregano
salt to taste

Add meatballs or other meat at this point.  One crucial ingredient, whether or not you actually eat sausage is to add hot italian sausage.  It flavors the sauce incredibly.  I add a whole package, but you can get away with only using a couple of links. You can use the all natural chicken sausages which are healthy, if you want.  Just as long as the flavor is hot italian.  I used a new gluten-free variety and they worked great.

Cook over low heat for several hours.

The Meatballs

One pound of ground beef
One egg
1/4 cup bread crumbs
2 Tablespoons parmesan cheese
2 Tablespoons fresh parsley or 1 tablespoon dried parsley
one garlic clove minced (or a sprinkle of garlic salt)

Mix together and form into balls.  Bake in oven for 20 minutes until cooked through.  I cook the sausage at same time.  Transfer to pot of sauce.  Cook over low heat for several hours (last step of the sauce recipe above).


Note:  My grandmother Rose would throw any meat into the sauce.  Sometimes she had sauce with porkchops or chicken.  My favorite was a sauce with stuffed calamari  (no meatballs, just calamari).  It was incredible. I plan to make a batch and post the recipe if I can find a place to buy fresh whole calamari around these parts.