Spaghetti & Meat Balls

Spaghetti and meatballs is the dish that built Italian-American cooking, and this version goes the proper old-school route with a three-meat blend (beef, pork, and veal) for the meatballs and a long-simmered tomato sauce with red wine.

The three-meat mix is what gives the meatballs their depth. Beef brings savory richness, pork adds fat and tenderness, and veal contributes a delicate, almost sweet flavor. Bread crumbs and four eggs hold them together while keeping the texture light, and a generous handful of grated parmesan folded into the meat mixture seasons from the inside out.

The sauce gets the works: minced onion, bell pepper, celery, and a clove of garlic sauteed soft, then simmered with canned tomatoes, tomato puree, basil, oregano, bay leaf, and dry red wine. Browned meatballs finish cooking in the simmering sauce, soaking up flavor while they release their juices back into the pot.

Pro Tips

• Saute the sauce vegetables until truly soft, not just translucent. Hard onion in the finished sauce gives it a raw, harsh edge that no amount of simmering fixes.
• Don’t overwork the meat when mixing. Mixing too aggressively gives you tough meatballs; gentle hand-mixing keeps them tender.
• Brown the meatballs gently. Hard-fried exteriors crack open in the simmering sauce and give you crumbly meatballs.
• Finish meatballs in the simmering sauce for at least 20 minutes after browning. Sauce-cooking is what marries everything; just-fried meatballs taste disconnected from the sauce.
• Use whole canned tomatoes, hand-crushed in the pot. Pre-crushed canned tomatoes have less flavor; whole tomatoes give better texture and depth.

Variations

• Use only ground beef and pork (skip the veal) for a more affordable everyday version.
• Add 2 teaspoons of fennel seeds and a pinch of crushed red pepper to the meat mixture for a more Italian-sausage-leaning flavor.
• Serve over creamy polenta instead of spaghetti for a Northern Italian twist.