On Top of Spaghetti, All Covered in Sauce

Otherwise known as: Mmmmeatballs!

In addition to an immersion blender, Santa also brought me the meat grinder and pasta maker attachments for our Kitchen Aid mixer. I've wanted to try making my own ground meat for a while, especially after reading this post from one of my favorite bloggers: Elaine at The Italian Dish.

After speaking with a butcher, I left the store with a chuck roast. That's the same cut of beef that Elaine recommended, so I was confident it would be delicious.  Boy, was I right!

I ground the meat twice - again, a recommendation of the butcher. I wish I had had a small amount of store-ground beef to be able to show you the difference between it and the freshly ground.  They didn't even look like the same ingredient. While store-bought ground meat is dense and ropey, freshly ground chuck is...fluffy. I was especially careful when I mixed and formed the meatballs to make sure the meat stayed as light as it was when it was first ground.

I also put the onion through the meat grinder, to ensure we had all the flavor of the onion, but no large, sharp-tasting chunks. The onion "juice" also added a nice moisture to the meatballs.

In a word, they were perfect.  They held their shape perfectly, but were incredibly tender - practically melted in your mouth! They had a distinctively beefy flavor, but you could taste every other ingredient as well. The meatballs went perfectly with the simple tomato sauce we made - I wanted something that would really highlight the beef, not compete with it.

We served these with freshly made fettuccine from the whole wheat pasta recipe that came with the pasta attachment. The pasta was very hearty - almost too much for the sauce and meatballs. I have a few other recipes I'd like to try, and will post the best one here.

Mmmmballs

Ingredients

• 2 pounds beef chuck, freshly twice-ground
• 1 medium onion, freshly ground
• 3 tsp. Italian seasoning
• 2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
• 3 TBL Worcestershire sauce
• 2/3 cup skim milk
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (plus more for serving)
• 1/2 - 1 cup seasoned bread crumbs

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400. Generously spray rimmed baking sheets with cooking spray.
2. Grind the beef and onion into a mixing bowl. Season with salt, Italian seasoning, oregano, red pepper flakes, and Worcestershire sauce; mix to combine, but do not overmix. 
3. Add the milk and Parmesan cheese, and enough bread crumbs to just hold together. Mix lightly until evenly blended
4. Form into 1 1/2-inch meatballs, and place onto the baking sheet.
5. Bake in the preheated oven until no longer pink in the center, 20 to 25 minutes.
6. If making ahead, store in the fridge, then warm in the pot of sauce until ready to serve.

Basic Marinara

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 medium onion, medium diced
• 2 (16 ounce) cans San Marzano roasted whole tomatoes
• 2 cups red wine
• 2 teaspoon salt
• 12 leaves fresh basil leaves, torn (plus more, for garnishing)

Method

1. Heat oil in a large non-stick skillet over low heat and saute onion until softened but not browned. Add garlic and saute until soft; be careful not to burn. Just as the garlic begins to turn brown, remove pan from heat.
2. Allow pan to cool, and add tomatoes, wine, and salt. Cook over medium-high heat and bring to a boil.
3. Reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in basil.
4. Blend with immersion blender until desired texture.