SPAGHETTI AND MEATBALLS (3 Tricks For Perfect Meatballs)

this video is sponsored by squarespace hey what's up when you google spaghetti and meatballs this is the first recipe that comes up it has you combine everything up front all at once that means onions breadcrumbs meat and egg mix it together shape it into balls and bake it i think this is the classic setup for most meatball recipes because it's easy but the problem is that there's pretty much none of the steps in here that would allow the meatball to be delicious like in any way look at it it's dry so let's make a much better version today i'm gonna show you the three main things you need to make a tender juicy delicious meatball at home and i'm gonna show you how to make your own spaghetti from scratch to get started i need to get my spaghetti dough mixed for that i'll grab my stand mixer and into the bowl of that measure four large eggs 250 grams of all-purpose flour 210 grams of semolina flour and 5 grams of salt the paddle attachment goes on and i'll mix this on low speed for about 60 seconds or so or until the dough has started to hydrate and come together like this next i'll add in another 20 grams of water depending on the strength of your flour and the time of year the total amount of water this dough needs to be extruded into pasta is going to be slightly different so use your judgment to decide if the 20 grams of water is not needed or enough or too much you'll probably need it though once it goes clear in the bowl and coming together into a mass like this i'll switch from the panel attachment to the dough hook and mix for two more minutes also on low speed like i hinted at before this dough is going to be extruded out of a machine and not hand rolled that requires a totally different aesthetic for pasta dough the final dough here is not going to be smooth or particularly strong and it's going to be very very dry compared to the other pasta doughs that i've shown you on this channel to finish i'll flip this dough out onto the cutting board and knead for 60 more seconds this last little bit of work should bring everything together into a cohesive unit and if yours is looking a little bit too dry or pebbly it's not too late to add a little bit more water and leave that in once the dough is needed i'll throw into a medium bowl and then into my fridge to rest and hydrate for 30 minutes while i make my meatballs and my sauce for my meatballs i'll grab a medium bowl and into it measure 250 grams of buttermilk one large egg and then 150 grams of cubed bread but not just any bread i think the best option for this is classic american sliced white bread it's dumb it's sweet and barely food but i've made these meatballs with all types of rustic breads in the past and they just weren't that great white bread gives me the best results i mush it up now with the buttermilk and egg to get it turned into a starchy sludge that hydrated starch is gonna coat the proteins and the ground meats and prevent them from drying out basically this is called the panade and it's part one in three of making amazing juicy and tender meatballs once the bread and the crust is fully mushed into a wet paste that kind of looks like banana pudding i'll add 125 grams of grated parmesan cheese this cheese is part two in getting a moisture ball the cheese brings a ton of added fat and when combined with the meat it's very very rich this is about double the cheese that i've seen in most other recipes behind the cheese comes 15 grams of chopped parsley 15 grams of minced garlic 18 grams of salt 3 grams of black pepper 15 grams of lemon juice a strong pinch of chili flake 450 grams of 80 20 ground beef and 450 grams of 80 20 ground pork that's about a pound of each that 80 20 spec on the ground pork is really important most of the ground pork i see at my grocery store is made from grinding pork chop scraps and it's 90 10 muscle to fat at best you may have guessed that the third major factor in making moist meatballs is using fatty meat think of eating a burger made from 9010 ground beef it's not that juicy you guys especially when cooked well done like a meatball you'll notice that i'm mixing everything together now but i'm not over mixing it we don't want a ton of the proteins in here to get linked up from being overworked that'll make things chewy instead of luxuriously tender i say work it until everything is properly combined and it can hold itself together like this next i'll grab a sheet tray lined with parchment paper and then my gram scale i want exactly 15 equal sized balls and weight wise these should be about a hundred to 105 grams i'll do a little bit of rough housing and rolling of this meat in the palms of my hands to get the proteins develop just a little bit more on the outside i'll work it until it's just a little bit tacky and can hold the shape of a meatball like this i'll move it over to a sheet tray then shape 14 more laid out three by five if you're thinking hey bry these meatballs look a little bit wet and kind of flat well that's a trade-off that i'm making between perfect roundness and deliciousness wetter meatball farce makes juicier tastier meatballs but it's harder to shape into an idyllic round meatball now to cook these things i'll let them into a 475f 250c oven too sear them for about 20 minutes while those cook let's make a flavorful robust tomato sauce for that i'll grab a high sided pot and drop it down on my stove over medium heat once that's warm i'll add in a very very generous long squeeze of olive oil like half a cup then in goes 150 grams of small diced yellow onion and 15 grams of minced garlic then a strong pinch of salt and i'll stir everything to combine from here i'm going to sweat these veggies over medium heat for about 10 minutes or until the onions are nice and soft 10 minutes later the onions are translucent softened up and have lost most of their moisture next i'll add a strong pinch of chili flakes and fry that for just a minute while i grab the tomatoes for this sauce i've got two types of nice tasting canned tomatoes here one whole peeled and one crushed using my immersion blender i'm gonna puree the can of whole peeled the pureed whole peeled tomatoes when combined with the crushed ones gives me what i think is the ideal contrast of both smoothness in the background of the sauce and nice rustic chunkiness in the front now into the pot that goes with the onions the garlic and the chili and i'll stir that to combine from here i'm going to turn the heat down to medium-low pop on the lid and cook for 15 minutes while i think the sponsor of this video squarespace squarespace is a platform that does pretty much anything you'd need to create and manage your online presence beyond just building a website squarespace can help you sell products accept payments or using their simple but surprisingly advanced scheduling features you can take appointments or reservations for your business or restaurants squarespace is what lauren and i are using to refresh our existing but very outdated website since neither of us have any web design skills like whatsoever we're keeping it simple and just choosing one of their pre-built layouts which looks like it was made by a professional but we can customize these layouts however we need to by changing colors adding photos and text or we could even add a fully functional online store let's see this thing t-shirts or mugs you guys i'll gauge demand based on your comments so check out squarespace.com to get a free trial and use the platform to create whatever it is you might be into when you're ready to go public use squarespace.com to get 10 off your first purchase of a website or a domain again that's 10 off your first purchase the link is in my description use code lagerstrum thank you squarespace for sponsoring this video checking back on my meatballs these things have been roasted for about 20 minutes now and they're looking cooked through and nicely browned on the outside when i pull them out you can see they're not perfectly round again that's thanks to the wetter more panad heavy meatball mix but these are going to hit really hard in terms of flavor and texture now i'll let these meatballs rest for 10 minutes or so and in the meantime i'll turn my oven down to 325f 160c and then check back on my sauce it's been simmering over here for about 15 minutes or so and at this point it's slightly more concentrated and all of the flavors are fully integrated but before i add in my meatballs i need to do a little taste test for seasoning i think this definitely needs a strong pinch of salt maybe a little bit more and then this might be controversial but i'm also gonna grab a tiny tiny bit of sugar just to touch like five grams and sprinkle that in that tiny bit of sweetness is gonna temper the sauce's acidity just a little bit and bring balance to the force now i'm gonna carefully load in all of my meatballs and then carefully stir those to combine with the sauce the sauce is quite thick and the meatballs are quite tender so use a soft hand to prevent total destruction now you could eat this pot of meatballs right now but we need to make the pasta still and there's an opportunity here to make these taste even better so i'm gonna load these into my low oven and slowly reduce and caramelize the sauce for 20 to 30 minutes while i sort out my pasta to do that i'll grab my stand mixer and attach my kitchenaid brand pasta extruder this isn't sponsored by the way i've just always wanted a pasta extruder and this video was my chance to buy one for myself thank you for your kofis by the way okay now i'm gonna grab my dough from the fridge and pull off a few ounces at a time as you can see just sitting there in the fridge got a little bit more of the gluten developed it's kind of like an auto lease with bread now roll this dough into a nice taut little ball about the size of an uncracked walnut and then with the mixer running on its highest speed i'll drop it into the extruder once the little auger thingy in there has gripped the ball of dough i'll drop another one if your dough is not getting grabbed by the extruder it does come with a little plunger to push it down at first that cold dough is not really going gonna want to extrude it takes maybe four to five minutes for the dye on the bottom to get warmed up and for the dough to get tempered but once it is things go super easy from there once i've got a good 12 to 15 inch length of pasta like this i'll grab it gently and then use a little cutter tool that's attached to zip it off from there i'll move the pasta over to a well-floured sheet tray and then hit that with a strong dusting of flour extruded pasta is pretty soft when it's fresh so this keeps it from getting stuck together overall this extruder is pretty freaking sick but it does make your mixer kind of hot i got through about half of my dough or four portions of pasta before the motor felt like it needed a break now let's check back on our meatballs and our sauce after 25 minutes in the oven it's got nice and roasty around the edges and it's cooked down into a jammy concentrated sauce oh yeah and that sauce has picked up quite a bit of flavor from the meatballs as well actually that beefy cheesy porky tomato sauce is one of my favorite parts of this entire experience to cook the spaghetti for this dish i'll drop it into a nice large pot of heavily salted boiling water and cook it for three to four minutes as you guys probably know fresh pasta doesn't take nearly as long to cook as dried pasta and if you've never had fresh pasta let me tell you it's a real treat it has a chewiness to it that you just don't get from boiled dried after three to four minutes i'm gonna come back and check to see how done my pasta is yes that's good this pasta is just past al dente and that's ideal for a comforting dish like spaghetti and meatballs in my opinion now to avoid getting that horrible watery pasta sauce thing happening in the bottom of our bowl i'm going to move these noodles into a non-stick pan and add a few small pads of butter and a few drips of pasta water i'll swirl that to emulsify over low heat and there we go well coated lightly buttered pasta that will not leave a wet soggy mess to dilute my precious meatball sauce now using some tongs i'm going to gently twirl this pasta into a pretty little nest and then move it over to my plate that'll get topped with two big dog meatballs that's close to half a pound of meat so you should be covered there three would be a lot then i'll spoon a bunch of that meaty rich robust tomato sauce on top of the balls you'll notice that i don't toss my pasta with the sauce that's because i want a lot of contrast in my final dish this way lets me get pure buttery spaghetti bites pure sauce bites and everything in between lastly i'll garnish this with a liberal amount of grated parmesan cheese some fresh parsley for green and then a long drizzle of olive oil to make things glisten and there we go so pretty and just so comforting when i cut into this meatball too you can see i get almost no resistance in fact i could easily have cut this with the side of my fork and oh yeah by the way this spaghetti is chewy and springy and rich in a way that box dry just can't be this meal is definitely something you should make for people that you love sometime soon it's so fun and it makes me so happy let's eat this thing [Music] tarde meatball

Channel: Brian Lagerstrom

Views: 204,582

Keywords: spaghetti and meatballs, how to make meatballs, meatballs, meatball recipe, meatballs and spaghetti, spaghetti, comfort food, spaghetti recipe, pasta recipe, pasta, homemade pasta, tomato sauce, italian recipe, juicy meatballs, spaghetti from scratch, homemade spaghetti and meatballs, best meatballs, best meatball recipe, marinara sauce, meatball sauce, ground beef, ground pork, cooking, recipes, brian lagerstrom, brian lagerstrom pasta, brian lagerstrom meatballs, food

Id: JiRSbtU45ws

Length: 11min 8sec (668 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 31 2022