Nonnie’s Meatballs in Marinara

mains / nonnie / meal prep

You all asked for it. At All Types Of Bowls, we treat everyday as if it were Sunday, so in honor of that, we are making Nonnie’s homemade meatballs with her Sunday sauce.

This recipe is basically a two-for-one. I’ll break down how to not only make the meatballs I literally lived off of as a child, but also give the recipe for her make-from-scratch marinara, or Sunday sauce.

I make this sauce in batches because it saves really easily. This sauce can be used for when you need to make a quick pasta for dinner, as a pizza sauce, or even for a Bolognese base. Marinara is so versatile I always end up using my leftovers within a couple weeks.

The meatballs are also really easy to make, but there is a secret to these. It’s basically to use stale bread as a substitute for your breadcrumbs, and soak the whole piece of bread in milk for a few seconds, squeeze the milk out, and crush them into the meatball mixture. Doing this instead of using actual dried breadcrumbs give the meatballs so much moisture when cooking them. Another trick is to finish cooking the meatballs in the actual Marinara sauce. It’s kind of like finishing to cook the pasta in the sauce. This helps give the meatballs their overall amazing flavor.

Nonnie’s Meatballs in Marinara

ingredients:

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 2 tbsp butter

• 3 garlic cloves minced

• 1 yellow onion, chopped finely

• 2 large cans crushed tomatoes (you can also use peeled whole tomatoes, crushed is just easier)

• 2 tbsp salt

• 2 tsp pepper

• 1 tbsp oregano

• handful fresh basil

• 2 lbs ground beef

• 3 cloves minced garlic (again)

• 1/2 cup fresh chopped flat parsley

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tsp pepper

• 1 egg

• 1 1/2 cups milk

• 1-2 large slices of stale bread (I sometimes use stale sourdough roles that are great)

• 1/4 cup oil for frying

directions:

1. add the olive oil and butter to your pot. once the butter melts, add in the garlic and sauté for a couple minutes.

2. add in the chopped onion and sauté for another few minutes.

3. pour in the cans of crushed tomatoes. if you’re using the peeled whole tomatoes, take each tomato out individually, squeeze out the juice and seeds inside over the sink, and chop them all up fine. then add them into the pot.

4. add in the salt, pepper, oregano, and fresh basil leaves. stir, cover, and let it simmer on low for an hour. you will know its done when the oil rises to the top.

5. to make your meatballs, combine the ground beef, garlic, parsley, salt, pepper, and 1 whole egg. soak the stale bread into another bowl filled with the milk for a few seconds. squeeze out the milk from the bread, and crumble it into the meatball mixture. mix it all with your hands.

6. form your meatballs and heat the frying oil on the pan. you’re just pan frying these, not deep frying, so you don’t need much oil.

7. brown the meatballs on each side (maybe 5 minutes on each side). once both sides are browned, add the metballs into the large pot of marinara sauce. finish cooking these for 10-20 minutes, until the meatballs are no longer pink inside.

8. serve over some pasta, on a sandwich, or literally just eat plain!