Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Recipe for the: Light and Easy Spaghetti and Meatballs

 Light and Easy Spaghetti and Meatballs
for the meatballs
  
1 lb ground sirloin
1/2 lb ground chuck
1 whole onion chopped
2 cloves garlic chopped
2 eggs
1/2 cup cracker meal (or 1/2 cup breadcrumbs)
1 handful chopped parsley, (or about 1 teaspoon dry parsley)
a few fresh basil leaves (or 1 teaspoon dry)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan, Romano (I used grated Granana Padana)
2 bay leaves
2 Tablespoons olive oil for frying meatballs, and onion
salt and pepper to taste


22 uniform sizes, no getting your hands all dirty, and just gently roll them together with wet palms, ready to brown them in olive oil, and throw them into the sauce. You don't have to use all of them. After frying, you can freeze probably half, it's up to you.
Meatballs should look like these, nice and brown. They're ready to go in the sauce when all pink is browned evenly. 

Combine all your ingredients for the meatball, and just lightly form them, scooping them out with the 1 1/2 inch scooper. If you like, use 1/2 of the onions in the meatball mixture, and use the other half to saute them to put into the sauce.

Easy Spaghetti Sauce 

In a blender, blend each 28 oz can of Marzano tomatoes, one at a time, give it a whirl, and it's done. Pour into a med.large sauce pan, just like that, and start heating it at med.high. Saute half the onions if you like, and add them in the sauce, along with some of the parsley, the basil, bay, leaf and a small amount of chopped garlic. A generous grinding of fresh black pepper, kosher, or sea salt...PLEASE NO SUGAR! Tomatoes are sweet as honey...HONEST! When meatballs are browned, just throw them in there, partially cover the pot, and on med.low cook for about 4 minutes, or until you see the liquid evaporating. You won't be sorry you followed this method, because sometimes you just want to make a vegetarian sauce, and leave out the meat. Serves 6.



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The easiest way to chop garlic and onion, is to first, buy a plastic jar container of whole peeled garlic, and put them into a food processor, larger than this size, and process them till they're finely chopped, and spoon them into a small mason jar, fill them with canola or vegetable, and use them for whatever your garlic calls for. Sure beats all that chopping by hand. This little food processor I got at Goodwill  $2.99, and whenever I just want to chop onion in it, just quarter the pieces and drop them in there. For meatballs, or meat loaf, they are especially goo, because you don't have all the large unwanted pieces in there, that usually don't cook all the way. This is such a time savor. The garlic will last you at leas a good whole month.


7 comments:

Kelsey said...

I never make meatballs and once I bought a bag of premade ones from the frozen section and there were soo many calories. Nice to see a light way.

Monet said...

Could anything be better on a cool Fall night? These meatballs look just delicious. I'm drooling, and I just finished eating my own dinner. I'm never buying premade meatballs again!

MaryMoh said...

That looks very delicious. I love your sauce...looks so bright and healthy. Thanks very much for sharing. MaryMoh at http://www.keeplearningkeepsmiling.com

Elisabeth said...

Thank you for commenting, Kelsey! These are really light meatballs, and they go fast in my family. They are also really good in a hoagie roll with sauce, and mozzarella cheese. I checked out your blog, and love your cream filled oatmeal pies. Copied your recipe. Thanks!

Elisabeth said...

Hi Mary,
Thank you! The sauce is as pretty as it's on the photo. San Marzano tomatoes really make the difference. I checked out your blog, and love your puff pastry filled with custard. Yellow flour could be what we have here, is the Mexican Masa Harina. a fine flour, made with white sweet corn. The custard powder, is not available, but I did check online, and could be ordered. Vanilla pudding powder would be the only substitute for it. Thanks!

Elisabeth said...

Monet,
I would love to have one of those beautiful cup cakes, right about now! Thank you for your nice comment!

Spoon and Chopsticks said...

Nice meatballs and easy sauce. Love this post.