Spaghetti & Meatballs

When I was in high school, during the summer between my junior and senior year, I had a part time job at a pizza joint near our home.  The owner's wife worked with us and told us her father was the retired Maitre D at Moran's Restaurant in the French Quarter.  Moran's, in it's day had been one of New Orleans premier upscale Italian Restaurants. 

He had taught her their recipe for spaghetti and meatballs and we used that recipe for our "Wednesday Special", you guessed it spaghetti and meatballs.  We used to sell out every Wednesday.

Truth be told, I made this for A.J. when we had been dating for a while and the rest is history.  It is just that powerful.  I think this was the first time I've made spaghetti and meatballs from scratch since we moved to Tennessee. 

So I'm going to share with you!

These meatballs are a combination of 1lb. lean ground beef and 1lb. of Italian sausage, eight slices if bread cubed and soaked in milk, 1 egg, 1/2 cup minced onion, 2 tablespoons minced garlic, 1/4 teaspoon dried basil, salt and black pepper to taste.  Loosely roll into meatballs and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.  Drain on a paper towel lined platter.  This way all that grease goes in the garbage instead of your sauce.

Over medium high heat, saute 1 onion chopped and 1/2 chopped green bell pepper in 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil.  You want a 2 to 1 ratio of onion to bell pepper.

Once the onion begins to soften, add in 2 tablespoons minced garlic and two tablespoons sliced basil.

Saute the veggies for about 2 minutes.

Add in two 5 ounce cans of tomato paste and hang on to the cans for a few minutes.    Stir and cook down for about 30 minutes.  Depending on the type of pot you're using, you want to make sure the tomato paste doesn't stick and burn.

 

Once the tomato paste has cooked down, add fill each can twice with water and slowly stir the water into the sauce and thoroughly combine.

Add two bay leafs and 2 teaspoons of oregano.

Sink the meat balls into the the sauce.

 

Add in 1 teaspoon of sugar and salt and pepper to taste.  Cover and simmer for 2 hours.  Stir occasionally.

Serve over cooked spaghetti topped with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.  Add in some garlic bread and a nice green salad and you will be amazed at the results.