Ingredients
- Meatballs:
- 2 slices of your favorite sandwich bread
- 3/4 cup water
- 1/3 pound ground veal
- 1/3 pound ground pork
- 1/3 pound ground sirloin (no more than 10% fat)
- 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 small onion, finely minced
- 1/3 cup chopped parsley
- 2 tablespoons chopped basil
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- Sauce:
- 2 28oz cans peeled and crushed plum tomatoes
- 1 ½ tbsp olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp fresh basil, torn
- 1 ½ tsp. salt
- ½ tsp. pepper
Method
- Boil pot of water for spaghetti.
- Remove crusts from bread, place in a medium bowl and pour water over. Let sit 10 minutes, and gently squeeze out excess liquid. Put bread in a large bowl, discard water.
- Add veal, pork, beef, cheese, egg, onion, parsley, basil, oregano, salt, and red pepper flakes to bowl with bread. Gently toss to combine, keeping lightness in your hand and air in the meatballs (don’t squish the meat too much, or you’ll end up with tough meatballs). Roll the meat mixture in your hands to create meatballs slightly larger than a golf ball.
- Cook meatballs in saute pan until browned on all sides. Remove from pan, set aside.
- In saute pan you cooked meatballs in, drain out any excess oil. Heat olive oil and add garlic, crushed tomatoes, salt, and pepper. Simmer for 10 minutes and add meatballs back to sauce, add basil and cook covered for 30 minutes or until done.
- While meatballs cook – cook spaghetti
- Wait till the meatballs are 20 minutes into their cooking time before dropping the spaghetti in the boiling water.
- Add 1 lb of whole wheat spaghetti to the boiling salted water. Cook until al dente, 10-12 minutes.
- Drain spaghetti into a large bowl and ladle some of the tomato sauce in with it to coat. Toss together and using your tongs place a pile of spaghetti in the center of a pasta bowl.
- Arrange 3 meatballs around pasta and ladle more tomato sauce over pasta. Serve hot.