Italian Meatballs Recipe

The other day my mother in law called me and asked me to cook an Italian dinner, she was craving Italian style meatballs, much like the ones she used to order when we lived in Boston. So I searched for recipes on the net until I seen one that looked like a winner and they were very easy to make and best of all I already had most of the ingredients. I avoided all the recipes that called for a 3 different meats and stuck with the recipes that called only for the ground beef and it still came out absolutely hearty. My mother-in-laws comment when she finally finished eating, "I never ate so much" , I overate too, so if your watching your weight, beware this dish is too good to resist, once you start, you won't want to stop.

Meatball Ingredients:

1 and 1/2 pounds of ground beef
1/3 cup dry bread crumbs
1/3 cup grated onion
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 egg
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 and 1/2 teaspoons of dried basil
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1/2 teaspoon rubbed sage, I used fresh sage from my garden
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400 degree F . Combine all the above ingredients together. Mix well. Shape 1/3 cup of mixture into meatballs. Of course you just need to measure the first meatball and then you know the size of the meatballs you are making. These are giant meatballs and one probably only needs one or two per serving. I ate three and had a hard time breathing afterwards. LOL they were too good.
Place them on a broiler rack and bake them for about 25-30 minutes.

If your going to serve this dish with pasta, it would be good to start about 15 minutes after you put these into the oven.

Meanwhile, we can start making the marinara sauce or use your own favorite sauce but here's the one I used. By the way this recipe makes about 5-6 servings. Since I was cooking for 9 people, I doubled everything except for the salt. I learned not to ever double the salt from previous attempts with other recipes.

Marinara Sauce
Ingredients:

1 and 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 can of Italian plum tomatoes, undrained
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 teaspoons dried basil
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Directions:

Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, cook and stir 3 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients, until the sauce comes to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer. Once the meatballs are out of the oven, add them to the sauce and simmer for 10 more minutes. Do not cover.

Serve with pasta and and your favorite garlic bread is recommended.

Enjoy ;)