Ready for Spaghetti and Meatballs?
Spaghetti and meatballs.
My first experience with meatballs came out of a can via the loving kitchen of Chef Boyardee. They were about the size of marbles, the big ones, and came in sauce that echoed the sentiments of Campbell’s Tomato Soup and prefabricated linguini.
In other words, I loved it. Hey, fuhgittaboutitt, I didn’t know any better. Mom was from West Texas and dad the Big Country. They came from families that pronounced it eye-talian.
The best meatball my mom made were served in a crockpot with barbecue sauce and grape jelly and impaled with toothpicks.
But then I made some lifelong paisans with Anne Ferlo and my view of Italian was changed.
I learned that meatball don’t have to be gooey meatloaf pellets. They didn’t even have to be served with sauce if you fried them through.
Ultimately, I like them best if they fried first and finished low and slow in a good homemade ragu.
Prepare your spaghetti and meatballs with this playlist:
- “Oh, Marie,” Louis Prima
- “I Left My Heart in San Francisco,” Tony Bennett
- “Catch a Falling Star,” Perry Como
- “Borderline,” Madonna
- “Mambo Italiano,” Rosemary Clooney
- “That’s Amore,” Dean Martin
- “Time in a Bottle,” Jim Croce
- “Islands in the Sun,” Weezer
- “Just a Gigolo”/”I Ain’t Got Nobody,” Louis Prima
- “Work Your Way Out,” Ani DiFranco
- “A Teenager in Love,” Dion and the Belmonts
- “Disco Stick,” Lady GaGa
- “I Did it My Way,” Frank Sinatra
- “December, 1963 (Oh What a Night),” The Four Seasons
- “True Colors,” Cyndi Lauper
- “Jump, Jive, and Wail,” Louis Prima
- “Livin on a Prayer,” Bon Jovi
- “Dream a Little Dream of Me,” Frankie Laine
- “Hollaback Girl,” Gwen Stefani
- “Love and Marriage,” Frank Sinatra
- “Five Months, Two Weeks, Two Days,” Louis Prima
- “Papa Don’t Preach,” Madonna
- “Ah Leah,” Donnie Iris
- “Fly Met to the Moon,” Tony Bennett
- “Sherry,” The Four Seasons
- “Peaches en Regalia,” Frank Zappa
- “These Boots Were Made for Walking,” Nancy Sinatra
- “Arrivederci Roma,” Dean Martin
- “Where the Boys Are,” Connie Francis
- “The Sweater Song,” Weezer
- “Lightnin’ Strikes,” Lou Christie
- “New York, New York,” Frank Sinatra
- “Buona Sera,” Louis Prima
Mangia, already…
Recipe: Spaghetti with meatballs
Summary: An Italian family favorite.
Ingredients
- 1 pound 80-20 ground chuck
- 1 pound sweet Italian sausage. (I like Lovera’s.)
- 1 egg
- 1 cup Italian-style breadcrumbs
- 1/2 cup Pecorino Romano cheese, fine-grated
- 4 cippolini onions or shallots finely diced
- 2 cloves, smashed into paste
- 1-2 teaspoons red pepper flakes (optional)
- 2 teaspoons chopped parsley
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper, full teaspoon if you omit the red pepper flakes
- 1 cup pure olive or minimum amount of peanut oil for deep-fryer.
- 2 cups Italian-style Tomato sauce
- 16 ounces spaghetti or linguine cooked al dente
Directions
- Prepare the tomato sauce in a large pot
- Mix all ingredients in a large bowl until well incorporated.
- Optional step: Place the mixture in a food processor and blend to ensure consistent texture.
- Form the mixure into balls slightly larger golf balls.
- Heat oil in a heavy pan.
- Fry the meatballs in batches, making sure you brown all sides. You may also use a deep fryer, dropping the balls into 325-degree oil for 4 minutes.
- Drain the oil and add to the simmering tomato sauce. Cover and cook on low heat for at least 30 minutes, preferably an hour to an hour and half. Leave the lid slightly ajar for cooking beyond 30 minutes.
- Boil 4 quarts of salted water, add pasta and cook according to directions on package.
- Serve meatball sauce over pasta with good crusty bread and a green salad.
Meal type: dinner
Culinary tradition: Italian
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