If you’ve ever wondered how to get those tender, melt in your mouth Italian meatballs, this recipe will show you how. The key is to simmer the raw meatballs in the sauce instead of frying or baking them. This is definitely a weekend recipe, or a day that you have the time to commit to spending most of the day in the kitchen. If you’d rather have a homemade bolognese sauce, you can try my recipe here.
Steps To Making Homemade Meatballs
The homemade sauce is key to this recipe for multiple reasons. Once you get the sauce simmering you are going to add 1/2 cup of it to the meatball mixture, however you need to make the infused oil to go into the sauce recipe. So here are the steps to putting this meal together.
- Follow the recipe for making the garlic infused oil. It only takes a few minutes to come together.
- Make the sauce, saving 1/2 cup of it for the meatball recipe.
- Put the meatballs together and then gently place them in the sauce and simmer.
Photo Steps of Italian Meatballs
Homemade Meatballs and Tomato Sauce
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 2 1/2 lbs Ground beef
- 1 lb Ground pork
- 1 cup Italian bread crumbs
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup Tomato sauce recipe below
- 1/2 cup Romano cheese freshly grated
- 1/2 cup Milk
- 1 tbsp Salt
- 1/2 tbsp Pepper
Tomato Sauce
- 2 28 oz cans Crushed tomatoes
- 2 cups Water
- 1/2 cup Garlic infused oil recipe follows
- 2 tbsp Tomato Paste
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Pepper
Garlic Infused Oil
- 1/2 cup Olive Oil
- 4 Basil leaves fresh
- 2 Garlic cloves lightly smashed
- pinch Red pepper flakes
Instructions
To make the garlic infused oil
- In a small sauce pan over low heat, add the olive oil.
- Add the basil, garlic, and red pepper flakes.
- Let steep for 15 minutes, strain and add oil to the pot with the sauce ingredients.
To make the tomato sauce
- In a medium stock pot, add the crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, water, salt and pepper, and the infused oil.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
- Let simmer partially covered for 2-3 hours.
- Reserve 1/2 cup of the sauce for the meatballs.
To make the meatballs
- In a large bowl combine all of the meatball ingredients.
- Scoop out 1/4 cup of mixture at a time and form into a ball.
- Place on baking sheet or plate until all meatballs are formed.
- Place each meatball into the simmering tomato sauce and cook for about 45 minutes to an hour.
- Serve over your favorite pasta noodle.
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