Italian Meatballs

Actually I want to put these side to side because this is one way to pair with spaghetti, vermacelli or even angel hair which is like spaghetti but a lot thinner then vermacelli or it can be put over Italian bread with a slice of either mozerella or provolone cheese for a sandwich.

The meatballs themselves have to be very saucy indeed. It is also very delicious.

Meatballs part: Before getting started, place mince in a strainer, rinse your mince under cold water to wash away the impurities. They do not wash before grinding and it is just plain nasty.

Let mince sit for 5 minutes before seasoning. 1 kg or 1 lb of chicken, turkey, beef, veal, lamb or goat mince, 1 egg, 1 handful of rice flour for as a drying agent and a binding. Add 1 pinch each of parsley, thyme, rosemary, oregano, marjarom, basil, black peppercorns crushed in a mortar and pestle, crush 1 whole dried red chili and add some of this to the mince mixture and the rest gets added to sauce later, Either 1 pinch of pink salt, vegtea seasoning, seasoned salt or 1 bullion cube broken in half, 2 cloves of garlic minced for meatball, mix well and make small meatballs. Place in fridge until you have the sauce partly made.

For the sauce part, this is the yummy fun part because all of the spices that are used to season the meatballs with are used plus a few extras. They are; 1/4 cup of olive oil, 1 onion or shallot chopped or cut in to half moon slices, let caramelize, 2 cloves of garlic, there are 4 cloves of garlic in total, 2 for meatballs and sauce each, the same amount of spices that is used in the meatballs including bullion cube if using gets divided, 3 dashes each of balsamic vinegar, maggi or knorr aroma, 1 pinch of either turbindano sugar or cinnamon.

I normally will not allow sugar in my sauce because I think it is disgusting but it cuts the acid from the tomatoes, 1 tomato chopped and cooked down like it is mush. It starts on high heat and then reduced to low to allow the sauce to form. The spaghetti and the like is cooked according to package directions. Take the meatballs that was in the fridge and carefully add to the mushy tomato mixture. Cover and let cook for 10 minutes. Carefully turn the meatballs over so they do not break. Because I used rice flour and egg it made it turn out beautifully.

Open 1 can of tomato paste and put it in a small mixing bowl with 4 cups of water and stir to make sure the tomato paste is desolved then place it over the cooking meatballs carefully and cover to cook for another 5 minutes or until sauce is thick.

It is even paired with garlic bread if you wish, I will post a recipe for that soon. I am stuck cooking on stovetop until I get a new oven. My oven is out and it is putting a damper on my plans and not a happy camper.

Because we do not drink alcohol I would suggest drinking a glass grape juice to go with this lovely meal. Aslo highly recomended you add freshly grated parmasean and romano cheese on top to enjoy.