Meatballs and Tomato Sauce

I have this habit that I am sure many passionate cooks and foodies do- marking off recipe after recipe in magazines and cookbooks to try out, and forgetting about them or seeing the recipes fall further down the pile of all of the recipes you have marked to try. After a tough weekend, I decided that it was time to start making progress on my ever growing pile of recipes, and finally decided to make the "Best Meatballs Ever," from a fall edition of Bon Appetit.



This recipe was specifically marked because a full two pages in the magazine was devoted to explaining how the author had traveled to city after town after city to try to stumble upon a meatball that wowed her. The published recipe was her ultimate finding, and I can't say I disagree. I am not a huge fan of meatballs, but these were darn good, and relatively easy to make! The recipe also included how to incorporate the spaghetti, which is fairly standard.



Jack and I had so many meatballs leftover that we were able to make open faced meatball sandwiches, which appear in the pictures. Recipes follow for both.

What is your favorite meatball recipe? What is your favorite spaghetti sauce recipe?

Spaghetti and Meatballs
adapted from October 2010 Bon Appetit

Sauce
2 28oz cans whole peeled tomatoes in juice, drained, juice reserved, tomatoes finely chopped
1 stick of unsalted butter
2 medium onions, peeled and halved
1/2 tsp (or more) salt

Meatballs
1 c fresh breadcrumbs
1/3 c whole milk
8 oz ground beef
8 oz ground pork (I used turkey as I didn't have pork)
1 c freshly ground Parmesan Cheese
1/3 finely chopped Parsley
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground pepper
2 large eggs
2 large garlic cloves, pressed
1 lb spaghetti

For the Sauce: Combine tomatoes with juice, butter, onions, and salt in a large pot. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Discard onions. Using immersion blender, process sauce briefly to break up any large pieces of tomato. Season sauce with more salt and pepper if needed. Remove from heat

For the Meatballs: Combine breadcrumbs and milk in small bowl. Stir until breadcrumbs are evenly moistened and let stand 10 minutes. Place beef and pork in large bowl and break up into small chunks. Add 1 cup of Parmesan, parsley, salt and pepper. Whisk eggs to blend in a small bowl, whisk in the garlic, and then add to the meat mixture. Using hands, squeeze milk from breadcrumbs, reserving milk (I didn't have any to squeeze). Add the breadcrumbs to the meat mixture, and quickly and gently mix the meat mixture until all ingredients are evenly combined. Chill mixture at least 15 minutes to 1 hour.
Moisten hands with milk and then roll meat into golf ball sized balls. Arrange the meatballs in a single layer in sauce in a pot. Bring to a simmer and then reduce heat to medium low. Cover and simmer until meatballs are cooked through (15-20 min).

Meanwhile, prepare pasta according to package instructions. When pasta is complete, add to sauce/meatball mixture and serve.

Open Faced Meatball Sandwiches

Turn on broiler
Reheat meatballs and sauce in microwave
Toast bread in toaster
Put toasted bread on plate, add sauce and meatballs. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese on top. Put in oven with broiler on for about 5 minutes, until the cheese melts. Add parsley to garnish.