Simple Pasta with Meatballs

We are making an Italian classic, we're making a bagel pot of sauce with meatballs because that's what I serve on my Christmas day table and it's what I serve most Sundays and I've shared a version of this recipe, I'm sure, with you over the years many times. I have a version of it written in my book which is pretty much the same thing but I wanted to show it to you again because remember what this season is all about that I've been talking to you for the last couple of weeks about, making staples that your family will love, making the kind of recipes that when you put them on the table, people will gravitate towards. We are not going to spend time and money making complicated recipes that everyone snuffs their nose at. Yes, they look pretty in a picture but no one really wants to eat. We are making family food, we're making comfort foods and we are making easy foods and nothing is better than a bagel pot of meatballs, simmering, I put some pork bones in there for extra flavor which we'll talk about in just a bit but for now, we're gonna get going on the meatballs. The very first thing I'm gonna do actually is rehydrate my breadcrumbs which is something I always do. So this is plain breadcrumbs. To it, I'm going to add some milk. You can use stale bread for this instead but basically what you're looking for is to rehydrate those breadcrumbs and the milk is a natural meat tenderizer so it also is going to help keep those meatballs really plump and really beautiful. I'm gonna add just a little teeny tiny bit more. You want it to look almost a little bit too loose in the beginning because it will sort of dry out. It sort of seizes as it keeps rehydrating so set that aside. In the meantime, I am just going to peel some garlic cloves. Now I make my meatballs very, very, very simple, really classic like how I grew up. This is how my mom makes them, my nonna makes them and you have to keep in mind there is a distinct difference between an Italian-American meatball and an Italian-Italian meatballs. We don't put onions in our classic meatballs. We don't put any crazy ingredients in our classic meatballs. We keep it very simple. We like ground meat of choice. Now, some households do the trinity of like the beef, pork, and veal. Some households do all beef. It is totally up to you what you wanna do in terms of your meat. Nine times out of 10, I just do ground beef. I like an 85-15 because I like fat. Fat equals flavor. Fat equals a very tender, luscious meatball. That's what I tend to use most of the time so that's what I have in my bowl. To that, I'm going to add some garlic. I grate my garlic because nobody wants to bite down on a big old chunk of garlic and my sauce does not include garlic but my meatballs do and that is gonna be plenty of flavor. That little teeny tiny bit of garlic will go a long way because we grated it so it's much more potent. To that, you're gonna add an egg. So, easy, right? We're not doing anything crazy. And lots of parmigiano. That's gonna be a huge flavor boost right there. A good pinch of salt, no pepper and look at the breadcrumbs now. See that texture? That is what you want. Now you're gonna come in here with clean hands and that was only a pound of ground beef and look at how much that is gonna make. Look at that, look at that big full bowl. And now you're gonna come in here with clean hands and you're just gonna mix everything really really well together. Those look great and now you just form your meatballs. How big you wanna make them, that's totally up to you. I always say don't make them too big because remember when you're serving a lot of food and on my Christmas day table I serve obviously a big pot of meatballs and pasta and chicken cutlets and sides and appetizers, it's always better to give people the option to take a few smaller ones than a few big ones that they get left behind even though I've never seen a meatball get left behind. But you know, sometimes you overestimate how much can fit, you know? And then you just end up with some waste. So I say make them like the size of a golf ball and that's perfect. Meatballs are ready and I've got my big pot ready with some oil. Now I am a sear my meatballs first or also fry the meatballs first. I know some people like to add the meatballs straight in raw into the sauce and cook them that way, that's just not me. One, I need a snack. Two, my nonna would be so mad. And three, you develop a flavor profile that's a lot deeper, a lot richer and that is key in my humble of opinions. They don't take long to sear, they take literally a minute or so on both sides. It's a bowl so you can't really sear it on all sides, just two sides and it just takes no time at all. Like, look at that. How gorgeous. Now would you want to give that up? I don't think so. I know you wouldn't. If you're using an enamel pan, a stainless steel pan, a cast iron, just make sure it's well preheated with the oil before you add the meatballs in or they will stick. So I'm going to go ahead and just get them all browned on both sides, remove them, do my second batch and I'll show you my next step. Meatballs are seared. Now we're going to talk your pork bones, okay? Now, you can use a pork spare rib, a bone-in, gotta be a bone-in, the flavor is spectacular. Or you can do what I do. I love to buy those really gorgeous bone-in pork chops and I take the center, the actual pork chop portion, I cut it out, use that to make a scallopine, a cutlet, whatever. I take the bones with all that gorgeous meat and fat on them, pop them in the freezer and that is what I've been using for my sauce and it's delicious and it's affordable and it gives your sauce so much flavor. You want a couple pounds worth and these are pretty big and they got a lot of meat on them. So as your sauce cooks slowly, all that meat is going to fall off, all that flavor is going to go right in. Delicious. I salted the one side, salt the other side. I want them to get browned. You want them to get browned, don't rush. My pork's done, meatballs are seared, well they're not done, they're seared. Now I wanna show you something, okay? What I did was I got rid of some of that oil because I like to use a light olive oil to sear everything but I want flavor so I take some of that oil out, I leave all of the bits in the bottom of course. Now I go in with my extra virgin olive oil because I don't want it to smoke and then I go in here with my onions. I don't do my onions super fine. I'll tell you why. A, they're gonna cook a really long time so they're gonna basically melt but also because I have a kid, we've got kids in the family that don't like to see their onions floating around their meatball so it's easier to remove but if you want to, you can just dice, finely slice, whatever your heart desires. Get that sauteing, it already smells so good and it's gonna lift, you see all those brown bits in the bottom of the pot? It's gonna lift those bits and it's gonna give you so much good flavor. I'm gonna let these go like a couple of minutes. They don't need to be super tender or anything because remember, this is cooking like four hours so they're gonna tenderize whether you like it or not. I like to add my pork back in. Look at that gorgeous color. Good amount of red wine, about a cup. You can skip it if you want. It's not an option in my sauce because it gives you good depth, good flavor. Let that go just a minute. This is two cans of tomato puree. What I also did was I filled each can after I put it in here with water, you know, cleared out any leftover bits and poured that in here as well so there's a lot of sauce but I like a lot of sauce, okay? Because I like to make pasta al forno or rigatoni or whatever so I like a lot of sauce. So don't be worried and plus you need it all, you know? You need it all. I'm gonna add a good pinch of salt. Looks like a lot but it is a big, big pot. It's gonna continue to cook. I'm actually gonna rinse this out so I'll be right back. I'm just gonna put that in. And now I'm just gonna slide my meatballs in like that. Gorgeous. Beautiful, it's gonna give you such good flavor. And don't forget, that's lasinigol. I just give it a gentle tear. That's it, that's all you gotta do. That's all you gotta do. Lid on, leave a little opening, okay? Vent it just a little bit for hours. Come in here periodically, give it a stir. Don't manhandle this because meatballs will become really tender, they'll break, okay? Not a bad thing but you know, one of the meatballs. But let that go, low and slow, get on with your day. Guys, it's been about four and a half hours and look at this. Just remember those pork bones, look at this. The meat, totally off, like literally melted right off. Look at this, look, there's a piece right there. Look at this, just comes right off, you know? I mean, it's just so delicious. Proper, proper, proper home food and comfort food. I mean, there's just not much better. And that's why I switched to this as my main meal for Christmas day because we have, you know, about 20 people coming. I obviously make a much bigger quantity and it's just, I decided I'm just gonna make the kind of food that everybody loves. That's what I'm gonna do. I'm not gonna worry about making a beef wellington, I'm not gonna worry about making a filet. What people want is good old classic comfort food and that's what I'm gonna give them and everyone loves it. I just made a little bit of pasta, just as a little lunch, just as a little lunch treat, you know, rigatoni all the way, all the way. But you know, whatever shape pasta you like is what you should be doing. Turning this off now, get us a little bit of that meat, some of that, some of those meatballs. And when I do serve it, you know, I'm gonna be doing the Parmesan and, where's my fork? Fresh basil and parm and all the things, but this is just between you and I, you know what I mean? Look at that, that's not one of those pork buns. Hot though. It literally just melts in your mouth. It reminds me of like, it's just, it's like, this is like my life in a bowl, basically. Hot though. But you could do some cavatelli with this, you could do some gnocchi, whatever. Proper good home food that your family will love and it would become a tradition every single Christmas to come to your house and get the very best food ever. Go to LauraintheKitchen for the written recipe. Hope you've enjoyed spending time with me and I will see you in the next one, bye-bye.