Spaghetti & Italian meatball recipe

This Italian meatball recipe with spaghetti is a rich and substantial dish, and for this reason is also considered an appetizing, mouthwatering and complete meal.

Contrary to what you might think, meatballs on spaghetti is NOT typical Italian, although we Italians prepare spaghetti in many ways, and meatballs too, so we can consider it an Italian dish.

Meatballs on spaghetti is a meal quite popular in Italian restaurants in America, where it was "invented" by the Italian immigrant women at the beginning of the 20th century, mixing the supply of meat that was abundant there with "poor" traditional Italian ingredients like tomatoes and spices.

• Difficulty: low

• Cooking time: 50-60 min

• Preparation: 30 min

• Cost: low

• Servings: 4 people



Ingredients for 4 people - Italian meatball recipe

• 1 clove garlic

• 1/2 onion

• 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

• 18 oz of tomato puree, 3.2 cups (750 ml)

• 12 oz of spaghetti ( 340 g)

For the meatballs:

• minced pork meat 4 oz (110 g)

• Mortadella 2 oz (50 g)

• pork sausage 4 oz (110 g)

• nutmeg powder 1/3 teaspoon

• fresh breadcrumbs 1/2 cup or 8 table spoons (30 g)

• grated Parmiggiano Reggiano Parmesan cheese 2 oz or 5 tablespoons (56 g)

• chopped fresh parsley 2 tablespoons

• ground pepper to taste (to suit your taste)

• salt to taste (to suit your taste)

• 1 medium egg


Preparation


To prepare the meatballs with spaghetti, first take care of the meatballs:

Put in a bowl the ground beef, the sausage without the outer skin and finely chopped mortadella (you can use a food processor to chop it)

Knead the ingredients with your hands, then add bread crumbs, Parmesan, parsley, egg, salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Knead again all the ingredients with your hands and then let the mixture stand for 10-15 minutes in a cool place.

Meanwhile, chop the 1/2 onion and garlic and put them to brown slowly in a pan with the virgin olive oil until they are lightly browned, add the tomato puree and bring gently to the boil.

Proceed to form the meatballs (I got them small, about the size of 2 tea spoons each, 10 grams) modeling them with the palms of the hands. Use all the mixture to form the little balls.

As soon as the tomato sauce boil, add the meatballs gently inside and cook for at least 40 minutes over low heat, until the sauce has thickened.


Boil a pot of salted water, then cook the spaghetti (about 8 min) and when they are al dente, drain the pasta through a colander set in your sink and pour over the sauce with meatballs. Shuffle to mix everything and then serve your delicious spaghetti with meatballs.


Buon appetito!


From Italian Meatball Recipe
to Italy Facts Homepage


New! Comments

Have your say about what you just read! Leave me a comment in the box below.

Share this page:
One more way to share Italy-Facts.net...

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

  1. Click on the HTML link code below.
  2. Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.
Free Italian Course