Foodie Friday: My Mom's Meatballs with Spaghetti

Meatballs with Spaghetti

For Sauce:

1 onion chopped

8 Tbs oil

1 large can (approx 2 ½ cups) tomatoes (can use whole tomatoes or diced)

2 6 oz cans tomato paste

2 cups water

1 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

1 Tbsp sugar

1 bay leaf

For Meatballs:

1 pound ground beef

1 cup fine, dry bread crumbs

½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 sprig parsley, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

½ cup milk

2 well-beaten eggs

Salt and pepper

1 8 oz package of spaghetti, cooked al dente (meaning "to the tooth." When pasta is cooked al dente, you should find a slight resistance in the center when the pasta is chewed.) If you don't like your pasta al dente, cook it until it sticks when you fling it at the wall. One piece should do it. No need to fling the entire pot!

Brown onion in hot oil. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, water, and seasonings. Stir together and cook slowly 1 hour. 

Combine remaining ingredients. Mix thoroughly and form into small balls. Brown in hot fat.

Serve separately, or add meatballs to sauce and simmer until heated through.

Serve over cooked spaghetti.

Note: You can, if you choose, make this recipe using ground turkey. My mother started doing that a few years ago and she's very happy with it. If you like ground turkey, I'm sure the recipe is fine. If, like me, the taste of ground turkey cooked in your favorite spaghetti recipe on your birthday is a bitter, bitter disappointment from which you may never recover, stick with ground beef.