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Marie Cook

Spaghetti & Meatballs

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Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Servings: 2 People
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

Meatballs
  • 1 lb Ground Pork
  • 1/4 cup Mushrooms Chopped
  • 1/2 medium Onion Finely diced
  • 1/2 medium Shallot Finely diced
  • 2 tbsp Chopped Parsley
  • 2 tbsp Chopped Basil
  • 1 tbsp Chopped Rosemary
  • 1 tbsp Fresh Thyme Leaves
  • 1 small clove Garlic minced
  • 1/4 cup Heavy Cream Or Half & Half
  • 2 tbsp Panko Bread Crumbs
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup Shredded Swiss Cheese
Sauce
  • 2 cans 14.5 oz Tomato Sauce
  • 2 Tomatoes, Peeled and Chopped
  • 1/2 Onion Diced
  • 3 med cloves Garlic Minced
  • 1 cup Red Wine
  • 1 tbsp Brown Sugar
  • 1/8 tsp Crushed Red Pepper
  • 1 tbsp Chopped Oregano
  • 2 tbsp Chopped Basil
  • Salt and Pepper to taste

Method
 

Meatballs
  1. Heat up olive oil and saute the onion, shallot and mushrooms until they are tender, about 8-10 minutes. Add the garlic at the end and saute for a minute or so to combine the flavors
    before you take it off the heat. Transfer to a plate and let them cool. In a medium bowl combine the bread crumbs and cream and let them sit for a few minutes so the bread crumbs absorb the cream. To this add the ground pork, onion mushroom mixture, fresh herbs, salt, egg and cheese and mix well.
    Roll into 1 1/2" balls and place on a baking sheet in a 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes. You don't need to cook them all the way through just enough for them to not break up when you put them in the sauce.
Sauce
  1. The best way to peel fresh tomatoes is to get a pot of water on to boil, drop the tomatoes in the boiling water for about 1 minutes, remove and place in a ice bath to stop the cooking. Lift them out and you will be able to easily remove the peel. Core the tomatoes and chop and set aside. In a skillet with deep sides, add a bit of olive oil and saute your onion until it gets soft, about 8 minutes, then add the garlic and let it blend with the onion for about a minute. Add the tomato sauce, chopped tomatoes, wine, brown sugar, oregano and crushed red pepper. Simmer on a med low heat stirring occasionally. When you take the meatballs out of the oven add them to the sauce and continue to simmer for another hour until everything is cooked through and the flavors have combined. 5 minutes before serving add your fresh basil.
Putting it all together
  1. Cook up about 8oz of Spaghetti when done drain and add to the sauce, stir well to coat the pasta and serve with a sprinkle of fresh Parmesan.

Notes

If you don't have access to fresh herbs you can use dry, the ratio to convert fresh herbs to dry is 3/1, so if the recipe calls for 2 tbsp fresh you would use 2 tsp dry.
If you don't have access to fresh tomatoes you can use canned, use one 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes instead of the fresh ones and it will turn out just fine.