Spaghetti and Meatballs for Megan

A month or so ago a dear friend subtly shared a blog post with me in the hopes that I would make these delicious balls of meat for her someday. Well someday has come and meatballs have been made! I made a few alterations to both the meatball and the sauce recipes mentioned in the blog post and this is what I came up with - I believe it was well received as it as leftovers were not hard to pass along ;-)

Spaghetti and Meatballs for Megan

3 slices of white bread, crusts removed

1/2 cup skim milk

white onion, chopped

6 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 lb ground beef

1 lb ground pork

1 tsp dried oregano (or 1 Tbsp fresh)

1 tsp dried basil (or 1 Tbsp fresh)

1 tsp dried parsley (or 1 Tbsp fresh)

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

2 eggs, lightly beaten

2 cans of San Marzano tomatoes (both whole, or one whole and one crushed)

Handful of fresh basil, torn

Red pepper flakes, to taste

EVOO

1. Preheat the oven to 40o and grease a large cookie sheet (you may need one large and one small...I ended up with around 30 meatballs when all was said and done).
2. In a small bowl, tear the slice of white bread into small pieces and cover with the milk. Mix with a fork until paste-like and set aside.
3. In a small skillet sauté 1/2 of the chopped onion and 3 of the garlic cloves together in some olive oil.
4. In a large bowl, combine (using your hands people, not a spoon...just like yo momma's meatloaf!) your beef, pork, onion/garlic mixture, milky bread mixture, oregano, basil, parsley, Parmesan, cinnamon, and eggs.
5. Roll the meatball mixture into your desired size balls and place on the cookie sheet(s).
6. Bake at 400 for 20 minutes, or until cooked through.
7. While the meatballs are baking, you can prepare the sauce, in a large stock pot/dutch oven sauté the remaining onion and garlic in a good amount of olive oil (the more oil, the more flavor will be added into the sauce...go nuts).
8. If using two cans of whole tomatoes, break out the food processor and pretty much puree one of the cans leaving the other whole. Add both to the stock pot breaking up any large chunks of tomatoes with a spoon to your favorite consistency.
9. Simmer on the stove for around 15 or 20 minutes.
10. Once the meatballs are cooked, add them directly to the stock pot to help flavor the sauce.
11. Right before serving, stir in the torn basil leaves. I served with penne, even though yes, I called this "spaghetti" and meatballs.

I enjoyed the meatballs (KR: 8 Stars) more than the sauce (KR: 4 Stars) for this recipe and will probably continue working on the sauce. Or, boy oh boy, perhaps combine the meatballs with our favorite meat sauce recipe...oh man...can we really handle this potential awesomeness???