Spaghetti and Meatballs

I just had to share with you all this incredible recipe I found on allrecipes.com.

I happened upon it one night when I was desperately searching for a recipe for spaghetti sauce that I needed for dinner. I'm typically a jar of spaghetti sauce kind of girl: store-bought usually tastes better than mine, it's incredibly easy, plus you can buy a tasty sauce from Aldi for 99 cents! That particular evening, however, I hadn't planned very well and discovered that I was out of the store-bought spaghetti sauce I was counting on for the meal I had planned.

I ended up doing something completely different for dinner that night, but I did keep the recipe I had found online. Not only did it get rave reviews, but I liked the fact that you didn't have to cook the meatballs separately. I tried the recipe later on in the week and was blown away by how good it was. Cooking the meatballs in the sauce gives the sauce an incredible depth of flavor you couldn't otherwise achieve (probably all the fat from the beef). It also freezes well, so I think I may start making it in big batches and freeze in small bags to use at different times. This may be the end of my store-bought sauce days.....

Here's the recipe, with a few changes that were recommended by reviewers:

MEATBALLS
1 pound lean ground beef
1 cup fresh bread crumbs (I used ½ cup oatmeal made into fine crumbs in a food processor plus ½ cup bread crumbs I made from piece of toast processed in a food processor)
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1 egg, beaten
1-2 tablespoons of milk

SAUCE
3/4 cup chopped onion (I used red onions because I already had some chopped)
5 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup olive oil
2 (28 ounce) cans crushed tomatoes (I just used a large can of plain tomato sauce, I think it worked out better, unless you like chunky sauce)
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon white sugar (I also added 1 T brown sugar in addition to the white sugar, to taste)
1 bay leaf
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste (I didn’t even add this step)
3/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

In a large bowl, combine ground beef, bread crumbs, parsley, Parmesan, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, garlic powder, milk and beaten egg. Mix well and form into 12 balls (I made about 24 smaller balls). Store, covered, in refrigerator until needed.

In a large saucepan over medium heat, saute onion and garlic in olive oil until onion is translucent. Stir in tomatoes, salt, sugar and bay leaf. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 90 minutes. Stir in tomato paste, basil, 1/2 teaspoon pepper (I skipped this step and added the basil earlier) and meatballs and simmer 30 minutes more. Serve.