Spaghetti and Meatballs

The BEST spaghetti & meatballs recipe we've ever had. I got this from an Italian friend and it's extremely easy. You'll never want to make it any other way after trying this.
- Ready In:
- 1hr 30mins
- Serves:
- Units:
Nutrition Information
9
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ingredients
- 1⁄2 tablespoon garlic clove, chopped
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- italian seasoning
- 1 (6 ounce) can Italian-style tomato paste
- 2 (14 1/2 ounce) cans tomatoes seasoned with basil garlic & oregano, chopped
- 2 (28 ounce) cans Italian-style tomato sauce
- 1⁄8 cup red wine
- 1 cup fennel head, chopped (optional)
- 1 teaspoon fennel seed
- garlic salt
- pepper
- salt
- sugar
- 2 lbs ground chuck
- 1⁄2 lb Italian sausage
- 1 teaspoon garlic clove, minced
- fennel seed
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 1 cup breadcrumbs
- 2 eggs
- 1 (16 ounce) box thin spaghetti
directions
- Mix together ground beef, Italian sausage, 1 tsp minced garlic, a sprinkle of fennel seed, small onion, dash of garlic salt, dash of pepper, dash of salt, 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning, bread crumbs, eggs.
- Roll into balls and bake at 350 degrees until done (about 20 minutes).
- Sauté in 4 1/2 QT or bigger pan, medium onion, 1/2 TBL chopped garlic, chopped fennel in olive oil until onion is tender. Add 1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning, tomato paste, chopped tomatoes, tomato sauce, red wine, 1 tsp fennel seed, dash of garlic powder, dash of salt & pepper and 1 TBL sugar.
- Add the meatballs when they're done baking.
- Let simmer for an hour or more. Pan will be very full. I usually use a little less tomato sauce, so it's not so full.
- Serve over spaghetti noodles.
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Red sauce with fennel in it was a new one for us. I thought I'd love it, as I love anise and licorice and have been known to eat plain fennel seeds. And even though I didn't add the sugar, as we prefer a more acid tomato flavor, the sauce was too sweet. We also felt the need to add a large amount of black pepper, over a teaspoon, a serious amount of salt, 2 teaspoons, and a good teaspoon of red pepper flake. On it's own, I'd give the sauce 2 stars. <br/><br/>The meatballs are worth 4 stars. I baked them in mini muffin tins which do a great job of collecting the drippings. I made the sauce yesterday and simmered the meatballs for about an hour, then tucked the whole thing into the refrigerator over night. Today, DH told me he'd had a midnight snack of a few of the meatballs. That's high praise from my self-identified, food snob spouse.<br/><br/>We had this for dinner tonight. I'm keeping the rest of the meatballs but not the remaining sauce. While I doubt I'll use the meatball portion of the recipe again, it's similar enough to my usual recipe, I will add some fennel seeds into the mix.
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