Both recipes from my favorite chef, Ina Garten, but both are from two different books, and i modified the meatballs a smidge.
The meatball recipe i took from her book "How easy is that?". It's listed under "Spicy Turkey Meatballs and Spaghetti."
The sauce is from her "Barefoot Contessa Family Style," book, and the recipe is under, (you could probably have guessed this,) "Spaghetti and Meatballs."
So lets get to it! First you make the spicy meatballs.
Ingredients:
3 cups bread crumbs from round rustic bread, crusts removed, cut into 1” pieces (or you can do what i did, which was buy the bread crumbs from the store. If this is the case, use WAY less. I would say 1 cup of already fine ground bread crumbs. My reasoning being they fill the cup more densely.)
2/3 cup whole milk (I used 2%)
2 lb/900g ground turkey (I bought the extra lean ground beef instead. Next time i might just go for lean so its not as dry.)
8oz/226g Italian sausage, casings removed (I used hot Italian sausages, about 4 of them.)
4oz/114g thinly sliced prosciutto, finely chopped (i bought pancetta instead, and kept it aside to use in the actual spaghetti sauce.)
1 cup Asiago cheese, grated (I used regular parmesan cheese because my market did not have any Asiago and i was to lazy to go to another store.)
½ cup fresh Italian/flat leaf parsley, minced
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp crushed red chili pepper flakes
3 tbsp good olive oil, plus some for brushing the meatballs
2 extra large eggs, lightly beaten
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400°F/200°C. Line a lipped baking sheet with parchment paper or foil (foil is better for easy clean up and is what i used).
2. Place bread in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Process until the bread is in medium crumbs. Transfer crumbs to a small bowl and add the milk. Toss and set aside for 5 minutes. (OR poor 1 cup of the box/can breadcrumbs into a bowl, add the milk, stir, it gets kinda clumpy.)
3. In a large bowl, the turkey (or beef), sausage, prosciutto (or pancetta), bread mixture, Asiago (or parmesan), parsley, oregano, red pepper flakes and lightly combine with your hands. Add 3 tbsp olive oil and eggs, stir lightly with a fork to combine. (Or like me, remove rings and mush together with your hands.)
4. Lightly roll the mixture with your hands into 2” round meatballs and place them on the prepared baking sheets. Brush with olive oil and bake for 35-40 minutes or until the tops are browned and the centers completely cooked. (I did not brush mine with the olive oil and they turned out lovely and crispy on the outside.) I cooked mine at 350-375 (since my oven is crapping out and i'm not getting a new one until we move...) for about 30-40 min.
They are delicious! You will seriously eat them right out of the oven. Yum! I doubt i'll ever pan fry my meatballs again.
Now into the sauce!
Remember the pancetta??? Now is the time to use it!
(Pancetta, 4oz)
1 tablespoon good olive oil
1 cup chopped yellow onion (1 onion)
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 cup good red wine, such as Chianti
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, or plum tomatoes in puree, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Heat the olive oil in a pan. (I used my deep sauce pan.) Add the pancetta, cook until well, it looks like half cooked bacon. Add in the onion and saute over medium heat until translucent, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the wine and cook on high heat, scraping up all the brown bits in the pan, until almost all the liquid evaporates, about 3 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, parsley, salt, and pepper. At this point i added in an extra half cup of red wine.
I let mine simmer for about 2 hours at a very low heat. Barely bubbling.
Cook your pasta, then add in your meatballs to your sauce to reheat them. (I added 4 meatballs per person into the sauce and i wrapped up the left over meatballs for the next day.)
I love De Cecco pasta so that is what we tend to cook around here. If you want some garlic bread, i usually take one clove, cut it, rub it over the bread, butter, sprinkle with parmesan cheese, salt, pepper and stick it into a 375 oven till lightly browned. Delicious!
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