Did You Eat?

Sorry for not posting yesterday, I was coming off the high from the boys birthday. It was such a great day. After a day of relaxation I am off to get ready for this weekend. We are having the twins birthday party with their class Saturday and Sunday we are having a family birthday party for them. Today I need to clean the house, make 48 cupcakes, and the make meatballs and sauce for Sunday. 

Since I was making the meatballs and starting the sauce while the twins were in school, I thought I would share how I do it. I'd like to make a huge disclaimer before I continue: I am in no way a chef, schooled in any sort of way about cooking. I am also not so great with exact measurements and time but I love to cook for my family and my family loves to eat my cooking. 

Meatballs and Sauce

(I took a lot of pictures for a visual reference)

Okay first things first, I take my biggest pot. I add 2 tablespoons of olive oil. I cut a large yellow onion in half and drop it in. I cut two green peppers in thick slices and drop them in. I peeled and crushed 3 big cloves of garlic. Turn the heat to medium. I let that sit for about 5 mins...basically I am building some flavor on the bottom with the onions, garlic, and peppers. 

Next, I open all of these cans. VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: I typically only buy San Marzano tomatoes. My Wegmans was out sooooo please try to buy San Marzano  in 2 Puree and 1 Crushed. 

 I add The 2 puree cans and the 1 crushed can to the pot and I give a good mix. Then I take one of the cans and fill it will water and pour it in. Next I add 2 big pinches of kosher salt and I do a few turns of pepper. Give a good mix. Add the tomato paste with italian herbs. Now all of your cans should be emptied into the pot. 

Mix up the paste in the pot, so it all breaks up. You may need to add another half a can of water if it is too thick. Remember paste thickens sauce and water will open it up...this helps me in case the sauce is too thin, just add some more paste. Let this come to a little bubble and then as you add the sugar set the heat to low.

Now I add 1 tablespoon of white sugar. I love the way sugar looks in my favorite glass canisters. So Sweet!

Lets make some Meatballs! Okay, so I am having a decent amount of hungry people over on Sunday so I am making a lot of meatballs. I picked up three 1.4lbs of the PORK,VEAL, GROUND BEEF mixture. 

With the amount I have I am going to use 4 extra large eggs. I scramble them first so it is easier to mix into the meat. 

Now this is what comes next: I add 1 cup of dried italian seasons bread crumbs, I grate 1 large yellow onion directly into the meat mixture, I mince approx 1/3 cup of fresh flat leaf parsley, I add 1 tablespoon of olive oil, I use my microplane to grate 3 cloves of garlic into the meat, and I add 1/2 cup of pecorino romano cheese. oh and add salt and pepper.

Mix. I use my ice cream scoop to evenly size all the meatballs. This amount of meat made 43 meatballs. 

Meatballs! This is my sous chef, I had to wrestle the baking sheets away from him earlier. 

Okay so throw those balls of meat in the oven. I bake at 350 for 20 mins. However, I have also made them at 400 for 15 min. Whatever...you are just getting them brown on top because they will totally cook all the way through in the SAUCE! These meatballs are what give the sauce all its flavor. You must let the meatballs cook in the sauce for the best tasting sauce, or lets be super Italian right now, GRAVY. 

Here she is. My big pot of sauce with 43 Meatballs in it. I have also added aprox. 1/2 cup of pecorino romano cheese to this pot right after I added my meatballs. I gave it a big mix. The heat is at low and I have the lid on for all those flavors to come together. 

This sauce needs to cook forever, so this is not going to be ready for dinner tonight. If indeed you wanted this sauce for dinner tonight you would have had to put it on the stove at 6:00am like my grand-pop did. I am going to let this cook on low all day and all night. I will stir it occasionally. I also would say to randomly bring it up to a bubble and then lower it back to low. I play around with it I put it on medium and bring to a bubble for 10 mins then lower it to low again. You really need to make sure it doesn't burn! Before bed I will turn it off, let it cool, and put it in the fridge then I will cook it tomorrow as well. Tomorrow I will add hot and sweet Italian sausages these will also cook within the sauce. This pot would definitely be ready to serve by 4 or 5 on Saturday but I don't need it until Sunday. By Sunday we will have a great dinner. 

Things I know you are asking yourself....why don't you chop the onion and pepper?

Answer: you don not need to, when sauce is cooking this long the onion will melt into the sauce and the pepper will virtually disappear. 

Why didn't she fry the meatballs? I used to and my family still does, but I found it just takes to long to stand over the stove, so I started baking them. 

Do I have to grate the onion into the meatball mix? I do it because otherwise you really should finely mince the onion and cook it on low heat to sweat it out a little. If you grate it you are adding the onion juice as well which a wonderful way to add moisture to those dry breadcrumbs. 

Enjoy!