Divine Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

Spaghetti meatballs is one of my favourite pasta dishes. I love its meatiness, its tomatoey goodness. Absolutely divine!! This dish is an Italian-American classic and "It is widely believed that spaghetti with meatballs was an innovation of early 20th-century Italian immigrants in New York City; the National Pasta Association (originally named the National Macaroni Manufacturers Association) is said to be the first organization to publish a recipe for it, in the 1920s" - Wikipedia. Usually meatballs are done with 2 or 3 different types of minced meat, namely beef, pork and veal but I decided to do ours using lean beef mince and they turned out super delicious and very tasty. You can serve them the classic way (with pasta) or else with some crusty bread. Instead of spaghetti this time we used Fusilli lunghi bucati which are long thin fusilli shapes tubes, For 12 meatballs you will need...

For the meatballs...

• 500g lean beef mince
• 1 egg
• 1 cup breadcrumbs (I used Panko)
• ½ cup grated parmesan
• 1 tbsp dried parsley
• 1 tbsp dried oregano
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp ground black pepper
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• ½ cup water

For the tomato sauce...

• 500ml tomato passata
• 1 tin plum tomatoes
• 1 tbsp tomato paste dissolved in 200ml boiling water
• 1 small onion finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• ¼ tsp dried basil
• 1 tsp sugar           
• Salt & pepper
• Olive oil

How to...

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
2. Now start preparing the meatballs. In a large mixing bowl add all the meatball ingredients apart from the water and mix well (I use my clean hands, this way the flavours infuse better into the meat). Gradually start adding the water bit by bit until you get a wet but not too much mixture.
3. Shape into 12 meatballs (about 60g each) and place on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. Put into the preheated oven for about 15 minutes.
   
4. In the meantime start the tomato sauce. Heat about 2 tablespoons olive oil and add the onion and garlic and cook until translucent, add the rest of the ingredients and some extra-virgin olive oil, bring to the boil and simmer for about 10 minutes. Take the meatballs out of the oven.
5. Now lower the heat add the meatballs to the tomato sauce and simmer covered for about 45 minutes on low heat. Stir only once.
6. Serve hot with pasta or bread and extra grated parmesan.

Enjoy!!

R&A