Spaghetti and meatballs
Spaghetti and meatballs is a true Italian or better Sicilian classic pasta dish!
Spaghetti and meatballs is a delicious and tasty first course, simple to make and perfect both for a normal family dinner and for a reunion with friends. The tomato sauce is delicious and can also be prepared in advance: in the evening all you need to do is heat it up, add the freshly cooked spaghetti and mix!
Spaghetti and meatballs: a timeless comfort food
Spaghetti and meatballs is a famous dish all over the world, it makes us think of the kiss under the stars of two little dogs from a very famous cartoon and for this reason they are among the first courses most loved by adults and children.
The recipe is delicious and also very easy, in just a few steps the dish will be ready to taste! The first thing to do is prepare the sauce with meatballs. Since every family has their own recipe for meatballs, feel free to use the one we like best. We prepared a mix of ground beef, salt, egg, parsley, grated cheese and breadcrumbs.
Form meatballs – we made them small, more or less the size of a cherry – and cook them in a pan with a extra viegin olive oil. Then we add them to the tomato sauce cooked with a pinch of salt and the basil for about ten minutes. Meanwhile, cook the pasta, drain it and pour it into the pan with the sauce, mix and our dish is ready!
Very often when you go to Italy on vacation and order spaghetti and meatballs they probably laugh or think you know nothing about Italian cuisine. Well, let me tell you my friend, you must know that spaghetti and meatballs are popular in Sicily and we eat this dish on Sundays punctually prepared by moms and grandmas! So you are not wrong my friend! The immigrants who went to America were Sicilians and most likely cooked this dish and that is why it is so popular in America and around the world. "Didn't I tell you that we Sicilians built the whole world?" 😀
How to serve spaghetti and meatballs
Pasta with tomato sauce is best enjoyed hot and freshly made, and the one with meatballs is no exception. In fact, as time passes, the sauce tends to dry out and the spaghetti to overcook, so we serve our first course freshly made and steaming.
Spaghetti with meatballs are nice and substantial and you can enjoy them alone, perhaps with a green salad on the side (in another plate). Alternatively, we can offer them as part of a meat menu on occasions when we have guests and we want to offer a complete meal from appetizer to dessert.
If you like, add a little grated cheese to the spaghetti with meatballs after serving.
Advice
Pasta with meatballs is a clever dish because we can serve it as a single dish or we can divide the sauce into two parts. If we use just a little for the spaghetti, we can enjoy the other meatballs with sauce on the plate as a second course!
We can also prepare the meatballs in a classic way, leave some and add the sauce, in order to optimize resources and ingredients.
We can customize the recipe according to our tastes if we like. For example, you can use mixed beef and pork, or you can replace the breadcrumbs with soaked bread to have softer meatballs or adapt one of the many meatball recipes.
Storage
Spaghetti with meatballs in sauce can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container. Before serving, just heat them in a pan or in the microwave. However, the ideal would be not to have leftover pasta because, inevitably, it will overcook, but the sauce and meatballs remain excellent!
Now enough about it: let's get it done and let me know if and how you customized the recipe!
Recommended items for this recipe:
Spaghetti with meatballs is a rich and substantial first course which for this very reason is considered an appetizing single dish. A recipe that appeals to everyone, even Lady and the Tramp who in the famous Disney film enjoy them under a starry sky, exchanging a romantic kiss. Not only in films, but also in reality, this recipe whets the appetite of adults and children, who would never be satisfied. Made with tomato sauce and enriched with soft and succulent meatballs flavored with nutmeg, spaghetti with meatballs is an appetizing and easy-to-prepare dish that you can enjoy for a romantic evening or for a dinner with friends!
- 200 g Ground beef (16 oz)
- 2 1 eggs
- 2 tbsp Grated Parmigiano Reggiano
- 2 tbsp Pecorino Romano
- 2 tbsp Breadcrumbs (or bread soaked in milk)
- Fresh Parsley (to taste)
- Salt&Pepper (to taste)
- Ground Nutmeg (Optional)
- 350 g Spaghetti
- 500 g Tomato Sauce (Mutti)
- 1 Salt (to season the water)
Place the ground beef, eggs, salt, other spices, parsley and grated cheese in a bowl and mix with a fork (or if you prefer with your hands using gloves link to these in the description).
We also incorporate the breadcrumbs and mix again until we have a homogeneous and workable mixture.
Heat a little oil and a pinch of salt in a non-stick pan, and in the meantime form the meatballs with your hands and then arrange them in the pan without overlapping them. The size of our meatballs is about a cherry, but we can make them even bigger if we prefer. Cook the meatballs for about 5 minutes, stirring often (the cooking time depends on the size of the meatballs).
In a separate pan, sauté the onion and add the tomato puree and season with a pinch of salt and a few basil leaves.
Then cook for about 10 minutes over medium heat.
In the meantime, boil the spaghetti in plenty of salted water.
Add the cooked meatballs into the tomato sauce and let continue to cook for additional 20 minutes on low heat.
Drain the spaghetti al dente and add back into the pan with the sauce and meatballs. Mix until all the pasta is perfectly seasoned.
Serve spaghetti and meatballs hot and steamy!
STORAGE
It is preferable to consume freshly prepared spaghetti and meatballs. The sauce with the meatballs can be stored in the fridge for 2-3 days.
TIPS
If you want, you can prepare the sauce with the meatballs the day before so that the flavors blend better!
