Spaghetti and meatballs

the spaghetti and meatballs recipe I'm about to share with you is sponsored by Skillshare it's italian-american culture on a plate it's an edible grief stained white tank top it's big sloppy loud and awesome and here's how I do it the meatballs themselves are pretty much how grandma ragu see I made them starts with bread crumbs bread crumbs are what make meatballs not tiny hamburgers it's an essential ingredient and you could source them however I happen to actually have some stale bread here which is obviously what recipes like this were originally designed to convert into productive use dirty your food processor if you want to but I need to dirty my grater for this recipe anyway so I figure I might as well use it for the bread I would certainly not weigh this if you weren't watching but because you are 20 grams or 1/3 of a cup but dear Lord this is not precise then we're gonna soak these in milk just enough to cover I probably pour it in more than I needed there I did an experiment once where I soaked them in water instead and I absolutely could tell the difference in the finished meatballs the milk sugars really come through and I think kind of caramelize a bit on the outside more dairy now some pecorino or Parmesan cheese this is what gave my grandma's meatballs insane flavor I don't think it matters much which side of the grater you use I'm doing it on the finest side because I'm gonna reserve some of this to top the pasta later and I like the fine cheese dust on top of this particular dish probably just because that's what I grew up with fine grated pecorino in a jelly jar always on the table get yourself a mixing bowl and throw in about a pound of ground meat this is beef chuck I think fatty or meat makes better meatballs I sometimes mix it with lamb which is great on goes about 20 grams of cheese same basic quantities the breadcrumbs third of a cup this is so a job for garlic powder it rehydrates in the meat and comes through a lot stronger than fresh garlic iMHO maybe even half a teaspoon same deal with the onion powder some people use fresh onions and meatballs but you really have to cook them first or at least puree them the powder is so much easier and I think actually tastes better in this bunch of black pepper and a little shake of cayenne for chef John and for grandma she did this it doesn't make the meatballs spicy it's more of a background flavor makes them taste a fuller I'd say at least half a teaspoon of salt real big pinch you might need more but remember the cheese is very salty now the breadcrumbs at the very least you want to lift these out of the milk to leave any loose milk behind you might also want to squeeze a little in my opinion the more milk you leave in the better the meatballs taste but more milk means softer consistency which makes them harder to cook they're more likely to break apart as you're browning them I was trying to play it safe for the camera here but when I tasted these I wished that I had left more milk in you see that I don't use any egg for binding I think that's unnecessary and it makes the meatballs rubbery what also makes the meatballs tough is over mixing this I'm using my fingertips to almost just toss it together if you keep the mixture somewhat heterogeneous you're leaving little fault lines inside the meatballs that will cause them to crumble in a pleasant way inside your mouth if you're in any way unsure of your seasonings especially your salt I highly recommend just cooking a tiny bit of this now and tasting it if you cook it in the microwave just to kill any bacteria then taste it and adjust as I roll these out I'm shooting for maybe a ping-pong ball size may be a little smaller if you go much smaller it becomes hard to Brown these without breaking them up if you go bigger you get less brown surface relative to the total mass giant meatballs are free Instagram screw that some people coat these in flour before frying them I don't like the slimy texture that gives them after they soak in the sauce ideally I think you want to stop cover and throw these in the fridge now for a while overnight would be awesome I think it improves the flavor and it definitely helps them hold together better during cooking but I don't have that kind of time right now olive oil in a pan big enough to not only cook the meatballs but also the tomato sauce that's coming moderate heat oil nice and hot before the meatballs go in got to get a good crust on them or they'll break when you try to flip them honestly a well-seasoned cast-iron pan or a Teflon pan is really the best thing for this job grandma used cast-iron I used the stainless steel here for color contrast and it makes it easier for you to see what's happening but I regretted it some of these stuck and broke on me as I tried to scrape them off the better tool to use anyway is a wooden spoon to kind of push the meatballs off the bottom of the pan but my wooden spoon was missing I believe someone was using it as a sword to torment his brother give up on the idea of perfectly round meatballs you know how people get those by chucking their meatballs in a deep fryer which is not a thing that I'm going to do you just roll these around and try to get as much of the surface area browned as possible I'm being conservative with my heat because I'm gonna build my sauce right here in the same pan and I do not want to let the Fond burn speaking of which in goes a big squeeze of paste it gives incredible instant depth to a quick tomato sauce especially if you let it fry for a second before it burns in goes a high-quality 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes about 800 grams and then deglaze the bottom of the pan really wish I had my wooden spoon right now and this is where grandma and I really part ways she made her sauce in a pot fried the meatballs in a pan and then transferred them to the pot I think you get amazing flavor if you do it all in one pan the dissolved meatball fond and rendered beef fat is all the additional flavoring these tomatoes need I think and if you do a small quantity of tomatoes in a wide pan you can reduce them really fast I like a very tight texture on tomato sauce for pasta grandmas was super watery this will be done in the time that it takes to boil the spaghetti did I mentioned I had a pot of salted water coming to a boil in goes half a pound of spaghetti half a box 225 250 grams I break my spaghetti in half because I think that makes it easier to get the amount that I want on each fork fall if that makes you angry I frankly think you have really messed up priorities this needs to be stirred frequently or it'll stick and burn you absolutely could do this in a cast-iron pan even though cast iron reacts with acid it takes a long time for a noticeable amount of iron to leach into your sauce and this sauce is going to be done in ten minutes when the pasta is almost there I'll turn off the heat and I like to mix some grated cheese right into the sauce along with some fresh serve I'm using parsley today I'm gonna top with those ingredients too but I like to have a little running throughout now is when you'd want to taste for seasoning because the cheese brings additional salt drain off your pasta and if you wanted a looser texture you could keep some of that water in there me I like it tight verging on dry which is why I like to add the sauce into the pasta pot and not the other way around this way I can make sure that I'm not over saucing my pasta grandma was from that generation of Italian Americans that just put the pasta on the plate dry and then poured the pasta sauce on top I'm not into that but I do like to preserve a bit of that heterogeneity or layering of textures by under saucing the spaghetti in the pot putting it on the plate and then scooping a little more sauce on top with some more meatballs it's nice to have some meatballs sitting right on top there it's super weird that I care but I also like to put my parsley or a basil on first and then the cheese on top I like how the cheese stays white and looks like fresh fallen snow on the leaves half a box of pasta would normally just give you two generous portions but with the added bulk of the meat bawls I think I've got enough food here for three or four people this is certainly a higher meat to pasta ratio than grandma would have eaten but I'm living in more plentiful times and I'd rather load up on protein than carbs I love the brighter taste you get with a quick cooked sauce the meatballs are small enough that you could eat them in one bite but if I cut into one with a fork you can see how it kind of crumbles that's what I like as opposed to the kind of rubber ball texture that you get if you don't take the steps that I took to keep these soft just a little skill that I've picked up and I'm happy to share with you as thousands of instructors at Skillshare are happy to share what they know Skillshare is an online learning community for creative people where millions of folks come together to learn how to make things and express themselves as I record this the world is on lockdown due to the kovat 19 pandemic making something is one of the best coping strategies I know it can help break the cycle of boredom and anxiety and put your time inside to productive use check out the new iPhone filmmaking class with Niles gray and Caleb Babcock will run through tips and tricks of how we shoot we'll run through different apps different settings the roz will be downloadable so either you can go take what you learn shoot your own film or practice your editing legit these phones have gotten so good now that sometimes I feel like a chump for shooting on anything else when you take a Skillshare class it's not just like watching a tutorial it's a real class there's a logical flow and structure there's homework assignments and there's a community where you can get feedback and support the first thousand of you who click the link in the description will get a two-month free Premium Membership trial so you can follow your creative impulse wherever it leads you and if you need some comfort in these crazy times come on make spaghetti and meatballs you know you wanna

Channel: Adam Ragusea

Views: 1,245,575

Rating: 4.9107037 out of 5

Keywords: spaghetti and meatballs, how to make meatballs, meatball recipe, how to cook, tomato sauce, spaghetti and meatballs recipe, meatball recipes, meatballs recipe, italian meatballs, meatballs and spaghetti, italian food, comfort food, how to make, how to, best meatballs, best spaghetti and meatballs, marinara sauce, how to cook spaghetti, tomato sauce for pasta, tomato sauce from scratch, tomato sauce for spaghetti, meatball recipe italian, meatball recipe easy

Id: v09TQk4Wu8g

Length: 8min 21sec (501 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 02 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/ApXv]

Now this a uni student friendly recipe!

[u/Oh_I_still_here]

I've never had meatballs made with a panade (mix of bread and liquid), am I missing out on much? These look noticeably juicier compared to what I'm used to!

[u/ElonTheRocketEngine]

I love this recipe