Homemade Meatballs and Pasta Sauce

Servings: 6-8
Prep Time: 45 minutes
Cooking Time: 3 hours +

Ingredients:
For sauce:
1 lb. of Italian Sausage links (we use Hot)
2 country style ribs (optional – but add a lot of flavor)
1 large can of tomato sauce
1 large can of crushed tomatoes
1 can of tomato paste
Italian seasonings (Oregano, Basil, Red pepper flake)
Garlic powder

For Meatballs:
2 lbs of ground beef
2 cups of Italian Bread crumbs
1 egg

Directions:
1. Put Italian Sausage links in large pot with a 2 tablespoons of EVOO
2. Brown sausage on both sides
3. Drop in ribs and brown on each side
4. Pour in all other other ingredients for sauce. Add water to each can to get extra remnants out of can
5. Add in herbs. (We don’t measure any of the herbs. We put quite a bit of everything though. You can always taste the sauce after its cooked for a couple hours and add more at that time.)
6. Put on low and stir every 20-30 minutes

My husband makes the meatballs. We find that making each meatball individually insures that it is mixed well and won’t fall apart.

7. For meatballs, get about 2 tbsp of meat, roll through egg and then through bread crumbs

Continue to roll until ball is firmly made
Here is a picture of meatballs made before going into sauce just to show you the consistency. Meatballs should get dropped in immediately after making, but I left these out to take a picture.

8. Carefully drop into sauce
9. Continue until all meat is made into balls and added to sauce
10. Stir gently as you add more and more meatballs
11. Cook on low and stir periodically to ensure meat doesn’t stick to bottom of pot
12. Degrease sauce as grease rises to the top by spooning it out
13. Cook sauce for at least 3 hours to ensure that meatballs get cooked through
–You could also cook this in a slow cooker on low

Here is the meatballs and sauce on our homemade pasta called Covatels or Cavatelli. I’ll share that recipe at some point.