Slow-Simmered Spaghetti Sauce with Meatballs
A deep red tomato sauce built on tomato paste fried in olive oil and simmered for an hour, with oven-browned beef and pork meatballs that finish cooking in the pot. Makes enough sauce to freeze half.
Slow-Simmered Spaghetti Sauce with Meatballs
Ingredients
Sauce
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 cans (28 oz each) whole peeled tomatoes
- ¼ cup dry red wine, optional
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ cup torn fresh basil, plus leaves to serve
Meatballs
- 1 lb ground beef, 80/20
- ½ lb ground pork
- ½ cup panko breadcrumbs
- ⅓ cup whole milk
- 1 large egg
- ⅓ cup finely grated parmesan, plus more to serve
- 2 cloves garlic, grated
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
To serve
- 1 lb spaghetti
Instructions
- Start the sauce.
Warm the olive oil in a large Dutch oven or heavy pot over medium heat. Cook the onion for 6 to 8 minutes, until soft and translucent but not browned. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute.
- Fry the tomato paste.
Stir in the tomato paste and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring often, until it darkens to a brick red and sticks a little to the base of the pot. Pour in the wine, if using, and scrape up the browned bits.
- Add the tomatoes.
Pour in the canned tomatoes with their juice, crushing each one against the side of the pot with a spoon or by hand as it goes in. Add the bay leaf, oregano, salt, sugar and pepper. Bring to a bubble, then lower the heat until it barely simmers.
- Simmer.
Partly cover and simmer for 60 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes or so, until the sauce has thickened and turned a darker red.
- Make the meatballs.
While the sauce simmers, soak the panko in the milk for 5 minutes. Add the egg, parmesan, garlic, parsley, salt, pepper and oregano and stir. Add the beef and pork and mix with your hands for about 30 seconds, only until evenly combined. Roll into 18 balls about the size of a golf ball.
- Brown in the oven.
Heat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Set the meatballs on a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes, until browned on top and no longer pink on the outside. They will finish cooking in the sauce.
- Finish together.
Remove the bay leaf. Stir the basil into the sauce, then lower the meatballs in, spooning sauce over each. Cover and simmer gently for 25 minutes, until the meatballs are cooked through and tender.
- Cook the pasta and serve.
Boil the spaghetti in well-salted water until just short of tender, then drain, saving a cup of the cooking water. Toss the pasta with 2 cups of the sauce, loosening with the pasta water if needed. Serve topped with meatballs, more sauce, parmesan and torn basil.
Notes
Fry the tomato paste: Cooking the paste in oil before the tomatoes go in removes its raw, tinny edge and gives the sauce a deeper, rounder flavour than stirring it in at the end.
Don't overmix the meatballs: Handling develops the meat proteins and tightens the texture. Mix until the ingredients just come together.
Panade, not dry crumbs: Breadcrumbs soaked in milk hold moisture inside the meatball as it cooks. Dry crumbs pull moisture out of the meat instead.
Pork keeps them tender: Beef alone can turn dry in a simmering sauce. If you only have beef, use 1 1/2 lb and keep the milk.
Why the oven first: Browning drains off fat that would otherwise float in the sauce, and gives the meatballs a savoury crust. You can skip it and drop raw meatballs straight into the sauce, but then simmer them for 30 minutes without lifting the lid for the first 20.
How long to simmer: An hour is enough for a bright, fresh-tasting sauce. Simmering much longer cooks off the herbs and the salt, so season again at the end if you go past 90 minutes.
Tomatoes: Whole peeled tomatoes crushed by hand give the best texture. Canned crushed tomatoes work and shave about 15 minutes off the time. If the sauce tastes sharp, add another 1/2 teaspoon of sugar.
Slow cooker: Fry the onion, garlic and paste on the stove, then cook everything except the meatballs on low for 6 to 7 hours. Add the browned meatballs for the last hour.
Make ahead and freeze: The sauce keeps for 5 days in the fridge and tastes better on day two. Freeze sauce, with or without meatballs, in portions for up to 3 months and thaw overnight in the fridge.
