Time: ~1.5 hour
Complexity: Medium
This is my family sauce recipe. Unfortunately no one in my family measures anything so all the spices are to taste, but it’s usually more than you’d think.
Ingredients
- 2 yellow or vidalia onions
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1lb ground beef
- 1/2 lb ground pork
- 1 egg
- Garlic powder
- Salt
- Pepper
- Basil (dried)
- Parsley (dried)
- 2 cans crushed tomatoes
- 1 can pureed tomatoes
- 1 stalk celery, chopped into thirds
- 1-2 bay leaf
- Parmesan cheese
- Breadcrumbs (I use homemade, food processed old stale/frozen bread after doing the onions for a bit of extra flavoring)
- Baking sode
- 1 tbsp sugar (the one measurement I got right)
- Gravy/stock/fat/drippings for flavoring (optional)
Directions
- Peel and chop the onions and peel the garlic. Put in food processor and blend until smooth.
- Cook onions in skillet until translucent. I melt bacon grease in the pan for extra flavoring but if not, butter works well.
- While onions are cooking, open the crushed and pureed cans of tomato sauce and put in large pot over medium-low heat.
- Fill half an empty tomato can with water, swirl and pass between all the other cans to get remainder of sauce, lastly pouring water into pot.
- Add the bay leaf, celery, sugar, and small amount of baking soda to sauce and stir.
- (optional) If you have any frozen drippings from roasts or bacon grease, you can add a few spoonfuls for flavoring.
- To prepare the meatballs: Add both ground meats to a large bowl. Add egg, a few handfuls of parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs.
- Season BOTH the sauce and the meatballs with salt, pepper, garlic powder, basil, parsley. Stir, taste the sauce and adjust. You’ll always need more than you think, careful with the salt in the meatballs.
- When the onions are done cooking, split almost evenly between sauce and meatballs, favoring the sauce by adding a little more. Stir sauce.
- When the onions are cooled enough, mix the meatballs thoroughly.
- To make meatballs, take meat mixture and roll between palms, they should be roughly the size of a golfball, maybe a bit bigger. Drop into sauce, paying attention to positioning so you can fit them all.
- Once all meatballs are in, give the pot a gentle stir with a wooden spoon, careful not to smush the meatballs.
- Cook on medium-low heat for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes.
- Serve over pasta of your choice, with grated parmesan and romano cheese.
Notes
The sauce and meatballs freeze well, so this makes a large amount to eat later. This sauce is also what I use for my Chicken Parm, Instant Pot Chili, Stuffed Peppers and Sausage and Peppers recipes.