Italian Meatballs and Spaghetti

You can never go wrong with a bowl of spaghetti and meatballs! This is a more exciting take on the basic meatball. Filled with pine nuts, basil, and a crispy broiled exterior, it's a staple in our house!

Italian Meatballs and Spaghetti

Sauce:

2 cans (400 g) Crushed Tomatoes

Olive Oil for cooking

4 Cloves Garlic, peeled and left whole

¼ tsp Salt

2 tsp Sugar

Meatballs:

1 Medium Yellow Onion, finely chopped

¼ cup (35 g) Pine Nuts, roughly chopped

3 Cloves Garlic, minced

4 Tbsp Butter (divided)

400 g Ground Beef (5% Fat)

1 Egg

½ cup (30 g) Breadcrumbs

½ cup (50 g) Parmesan Cheese

½ cup (5 g) Fresh Basil Leaves (lightly chopped)

¼ tsp Salt

⅛ tsp Pepper

300g Spaghetti Noodles

1. Begin making the sauce first, this will cook while you work on the meatballs.

2. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, place just enough oil to lightly coat the pan. Cook garlic until it just begins to turn lightly golden brown.

3. Add the tomatoes, bring to a soft boil and immediately turn down to a medium low heat. The sauce should gently simmer.

4. Stir occasionally and cook for 20 minutes with a lid on.

5. Check the garlic for doneness by puncturing it. The garlic is ready when it is soft and easily penetrated.

6. With an immersion blender, blend tomato sauce and garlic until smooth.

7. Add salt and sugar. Feel free to play around with amounts according to your liking.

*Note: some canned tomatoes can be a little more bitter than others, the addition of sugar will counteract this.

Cook noodles according to package directions

To make the meatballs:

1. In a medium nonstick frying pan, over medium heat, cook butter onions and pine nuts until the onions are tender and translation and the pine nuts have taken on a golden color, about 5 minutes.

2. Add the minced garlic and cook for an additional minute.

3. Set aside to cool.

4. In a large bowl, combine ground beef, egg, breadcrumbs, parmesan, basil, salt, pepper and cooled onion mixture.

*For even cooking, use an ice cream scoop to form uniform meatballs. I used a medium-small ice cream scoop and it yielded 18 meatballs.

Two methods for cooking the meatballs: (Pick one that's fitting for you) :)

First method:

With the same pan, you used to cook the onions, fry the meatballs on medium high heat until each side has become dark brown. (Think bbq coloring. This is where you get some really great added flavor) This may need to be done in batches, as you do not want to over overcrowd the pan.

OR

Second method:

Place all of the meatballs on a lightly greased baking sheet under the broiler. Broil until the tops have become dark brown and flip, browning both sides. (again, think bbq coloring)

Once meatballs have browned on both sides, finish cooking in the tomato sauce for several minutes and serve with spaghetti noodles and top with parsley.

Enjoy!