Everyday Italian

Pasta and Meatballs

When we are thinking about Italian foods, a lot of you might thinking of Pasta, Pizza and Lasagna right? My favorite Italian dish is Pasta and Meatballs. When I was young and lived in Thailand, I had never had this dish, always Thai foods or other Asian foods. Luckily, I came to work in the United States, I had gotten more chances to know more about Italian foods. IThere are Italian restaurants I entered to couple times but I remeber that I never ordered a pasta with meatball dish, don't know why, maybe because I think it was just a simple dish.

Anyway, I am working with a Canadian family. Grandparents of 2 young boys that I am taking care are Italian and very good cooks. They have passion for cooking and baking. Fortunately, I feel like a lucky person that get to stay with this family and learn so much from them.

First month of being in Canada, they showed and taught me how to make pasta sauce. It was amazing and surprised how to cook an Italian meal. It looked so easy to prepare and more impressed of this sauce was the taste, it was so good and fresh. It makes me think now that the main reasons of Italian cooking is fresh and homemade foods. Since then I just love to prepare homemade pasta sauce that she taught me. She even showed me how to bottle very own tomato base sauces from fresh Roma tomatoes ripe from the garden and farm. It was very unique style and authentic. Lucky me! they also taught me how to make their own meatballs recipe which everyone really love it.

Finally, my first blog today couldn't hesitate to write about this Pasta Sauce and Meatball recipes because this is one of my all time favorite dishes to prepare.

Nauna meatballs Recipe,

Ingredient;

3  lbs  Lean ground beef

3  lbs  Lean ground veal

1  lbs  Lean ground pork

3  cups of bread crumbs

2 1/2  cups of grated Romano cheese

1/2  cup of chopped fresh parsley

2  Tablespoons of minced garlic

17  large eggs (* it's can be more or less depend on how moist the mixture is)

2  Teaspoon of Salt and ground black pepper

Direction; Preheat 375 F, Yield 75 - 80 meatballs

1. In a large mixing bowl, break up the meats altogether until it mixed well. Carefully not to squeeze it because will make the meatballs too dense and tough,

2. Add bread crumbs, cheese, parsley, salt, black pepper and garlic, mix it all well.
3. Add 4 eggs at a time and mix well with the meat mixture alternately add more eggs until you feel it combined altogether. Make sure the meat mixture doesn’t feel dry and not liquid, then shape up with wet hand with a tennis balls size.
4. Preparing baking sheets with cooking spray. Place the meatballs in the sheet close to each other but not touching and bake it in the oven about 15-20 minutes or just until it lightly brown outside and still moist inside.  Lets it cool off in the baking sheet completely.
5. Freezer tip; put it in the air tight containers or zip lock bags for freezer. Keep it in the freezer about 6 months

Pasta Sauce

Ingredient;

1 Cans of tomato sauce

1 Can of Tomato paste

6 leaves of Fresh/dried basil

2 Tablespoon of chopped fresh parsley/1 Teaspoon of dried Parsley

2 Bay leafs (* Optional)

1 Teaspoon of Minced garlic

A pinch of Salt and ground black pepper

3 Tablespoons Olive Oil

Direction;

In a big pot, preheat in medium low heat, add  oil and garlic, cook until golden brown. Add a can of tomato paste and a half of a can of water in tomato paste can, stir well and bring it to boil. Pour a can of tomato sauce and add a half of a can of water in the tomato sauce. Bring to boil, add bay leafs, Basil, parsley, Salt and pepper. If making Pasta meatballs sauce, add them in the sauce this time. Reduce the heat and let it simmer for about an hour or so. Make sure that the sauce and the meats are cooperated well.

Additional Meats;

Pork Back Ribs; cut the ribs to individual pieces and seasoning with salt and black pepper altogether. Browns the Ribs in the pot that you are going to use to make a pasta sauce, doesn’t need to cook through because it will cook more with the sauce and will give the sauce more tastier. Lets it simmer in the sauce until the meat is starting to coming out of the bones.

Ground Beef; cook chopped white onion and garlic until its translucent, seasons with salt and black pepper. Add the ground beef and cook through, then drain the fat out. Pour in Tomato paste and tomato sauce, lets it simmer about 2 hours.