Meatball marinara with pasta is a signature dish in our house, the children love it, we cannot get enough of it, and there’s always room for more the next day. On top of that if you decide to not mix the pasta with sauce until serving and there's leftover sauce and meatballs, you can cook the sauce down the next day and put it into a baguette for a quick fix sub!
Ingredients
For the sauce
- Extra virgin olive oil (3 tbsp)
- Minced onions (3 tbsp)
- Minced garlic cloves (2)
- Italian chopped tomatoes (2 tins)
- Fresh basil
- Pinch of salt and black pepper
- Dried oregano
For the meatballs
- Lean beef mince (3 cups)
- Ground veal (2 cups)
- Ground pork (2 cups)
- 2 eggs
- Italian parmesan (1 cup)
- 1 ½ Tablespoons of fresh chopped flat leaf parsley
- Minced garlic clove (1)
- breadcrumbs (2 cups)
- Olive oil (1 cup)
Method
1. To make the sauce; heat your olive oil in a large pan over a medium to low heat, sauté onions until translucent, around 3 minutes. Add your minced garlic and stir until softened. Continue by adding your chopped tomatoes with all of the juices and bring to a hard boil. Reduce the heat to a low and simmer your sauce until slightly thickened, around 35 minutes. Finish but adding basil, oregano, salt and pepper to taste and cook for 1 more minute.
2. To make your meatballs, combine all of your ground meats into a mixing bowl. Crack the eggs and add to the mixture, add in the cheese, parsley, and minced garlic then your desired amount of salt and pepper. Add in your breadcrumbs mix well. Add ½ cup of water to the mixture until moist add up to 2 cups but you may not need it all. Shape into ½ inch meatballs by rubbing in your hands into ball shapes.
3. Heat the olive oil in a large pan, heat on low. Add the meatballs to the pan and cook until browned on both sides and cooked through, once cooked through add the meatball sauce to the meatballs. Mix gently to avoid breaking the balls and serve poured over your favourite pasta.
