Spaghetti with Meatballs

⏳ Time

35 minutes

🥕 Ingredients

🍽️ Servings

Description

You should choose very good tomatoes: ripe, meaty, and large, to extract as much juice as possible for the sauce. But there is also an alternative for those who enjoy homemade preserves—homemade tomato sauce. It's also important to use excellent ground meat, preferably a mix of pork and beef, made fresh at home, without excess fat and from fresh meat.

Ingredients

Veal Mince - 10.6 oz
Fresh Rose Hips - 1 tablespoon
Thyme - 1 tablespoon
Chicken Egg - 1 piece
Breadcrumbs - 1.1 oz
Onion - 1 piece
Garlic - 2 cloves
Tomatoes - 5 pieces
Basil - 1 stalk
Passata Tomato Sauce - 5 teaspoons
Olive Oil - to taste
Salt - to taste
Ground Black Pepper - to taste
Grated Pecorino Pepato Cheese - to taste
Spaghetti - 7.1 oz

Step by Step guide

Step 1

First, prepare the filling: place the meat in a large bowl, season with salt and pepper to taste, add chopped thyme and rosemary leaves, and breadcrumbs. Mix everything well with your hands, then add the egg and knead again until smooth. Set aside.

Step 2

Finely chop the onion and garlic. In a skillet (a wide one with high sides is preferable), sauté the onion in a small amount of olive oil (1–2 tablespoons) over medium heat for about 4–5 minutes, then add the garlic and cook for another couple of minutes.

Step 3

Meanwhile, cut the tomatoes in half and grate the flesh on a coarse grater. Add tomato paste to the grated tomatoes, season with salt, mix well, and pour into the skillet. Add finely chopped basil leaves to the tomato sauce.

Step 4

While the sauce is coming to a boil, make the meatballs: with damp hands, shape 10 balls about 4 cm in diameter. Place them into the boiling sauce, then reduce the heat so that the sauce is barely simmering. The meatballs should be half submerged in the sauce. If necessary, you can add a little water to make the sauce slightly thinner. Cook the meatballs covered for 20–25 minutes, turning them every 5–7 minutes, until fully cooked.

Step 5

Cook the pasta until al dente (usually one minute less than the package instructions), drain the water, and add it to the skillet with the sauce. Toss the spaghetti with the sauce, plate it, and sprinkle with Parmesan before serving.