Spaghetti and Meatballs Recipe – Learn with Experts :- The ultimate Italian-American comfort food, this recipe for quick spaghetti and meatballs features soft meatballs and properly cooked noodles topped in a delicious tomato sauce! It is a beloved, tried-and-true family favourite that takes less than 90 minutes to prepare with basic ingredients!
Spaghetti and Meatballs Recipe – Learn with Experts
Who doesn’t enjoy a good bowl of spaghetti? Add some meatballs, and it’s just delicious! And for that, we can thank the Italian Americans. In fact, spaghetti and meatballs originated in New York City in the late 1800s when meat was more readily available to Italian immigrants. So they grabbed some really good meatballs and threw them on top of a platter of red sauce-topped pasta, and presto!
Ingredients
For Meatballs
- 3 slices white bread
- ½ cup milk
- 1 pound ground beef
- 1 pound ground pork
- 2 large eggs
- ¼ cup fresh parsley (chopped)
- 2 tablespoons fresh basil (chopped)
- 1 tablespoon oregano (dried or fresh)
- 3 cloves garlic (minced)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
For Sauce and Everything else
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 small onion (chopped)
- 2 cloves garlic (minced)
- ½ cup chicken broth (low sodium)
- 56 ounce crushed tomatoes ((2 28 oz cans))
- ¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- ½ teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- ¼ teaspoon pepper (or to taste)
- 2 large basil sprigs
- 1 pound spaghetti (uncooked)
- Parmesan cheese
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Instructions
Slices of bread should be broken up and put in a big basin. After pouring the milk over them, allow the bread to soak for ten minutes or so.
Add the remaining ingredients for the meatballs to the same bowl. Using your clean hands, thoroughly mix. About the size of a golf ball, form the meatball mixture into balls.
Warm up the olive oil in a big frying pan. When the meatballs are fully cooked and browned, add them and sauté. In order to keep their shape, turn them frequently.
Depending on the size of your skillet and the size of your meatballs, you might also need to work in a few batches. Each batch should take ten to fifteen minutes.
After moving the meatballs to a platter, put them away. Pour some of the oil out of your skillet if it’s overly full. There should be around 1 tablespoon of fat left in the skillet.
When the onion is tender and transparent, add the garlic and onion to the skillet and cook for 3 to 5 minutes. The sauce will taste better once you deglaze the pan with chicken broth and scrape out all the brown meatball bits.
Add the red pepper flakes, crushed tomatoes, basil springs, salt, and pepper.
Bring to a boil while stirring. After lowering the heat to a simmer and covering the skillet, cook it for 20 to 30 minutes while stirring from time to time. The sauce ought to slightly thicken.
Cook the spaghetti per the directions on the package while the sauce is simmering. Set aside roughly one cup of the pasta water.
Add a small amount of pasta water to thin out your sauce if it’s too thick and reach the right consistency.
Toss the pasta thoroughly after adding one to two cups of the sauce to a large bowl. Toss the meatballs with the leftover sauce in the skillet.
Serve the meatballs over spaghetti and top with basil or parsley and Parmesan cheese.
Notes
Cool the meatballs. Make the meatballs firm up in the fridge before cooking. This helps them keep form during cooking. You can even make them the night before.
Deglaze appropriately. Scrape up the brown parts on the pan after adding chicken broth. This is the key to tasty sauces.
Save cooking water. Save 1 cup of pasta water to thin the sauce. Salt and starch in the water contribute flavour and moisture without making the dish soggy.
Hover over the recipe card’s servings if you think this recipe yields too much. Change the number of servings with a slider. The recipe will adjust.
Nutrition Information
- Serving: 1serving
- Calories: 637kcal (32%)
- Carbohydrates: 66g (22%)
- Protein: 35g (70%)
- Fat: 26g (40%)
- Saturated Fat: 8g (50%)
- Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g
- Monounsaturated Fat: 12g
- Trans Fat: 0.4g
- Cholesterol: 125mg (42%)
- Sodium: 703mg (31%)
- Potassium: 1177mg (34%)
- Fiber: 7g (29%)
- Sugar: 13g (14%)
- Vitamin A: 728IU (15%)
- Vitamin C: 24mg (29%)
- Calcium: 162mg (16%)
- Iron: 6mg (33%)
