You'll Love Ree's Spaghetti and Meatballs Recipe (2024)

I love—I mean love—making spaghetti and meatballs. Oh, don’t get me wrong—I love eating it, too. But if I had to choose forever between cooking it and eating it…well, wait a minute. I don’t know which I’d choose. Never eating spaghetti and meatballs again in my life would be pretty devastating.

What I’m trying to say in a roundabout, backward, incoherent, motormouthed way is that I derive a great deal of satisfaction from cooking spaghetti and meatballs. There’s just something about the mixing of the meatballs, the forming them into compact little rounds, the browning them in the same pot in which you’ll eventually add the sauce ingredients, the adding of the meatballs to the sauce. The steady simmer, during which the meatballs impart their flavor to the sauce.

The Cast of Characters: ground beef, ground pork, garlic, breadcrumbs, eggs, parsley, salt, pepper, canned crushed tomatoes, canned whole tomatoes, onion, Parmesan cheese, spaghetti and olive oil.

You can use whatever ground meat you’d like to use, actually. This is beef (left) and pork (right), but you could use all beef if that’s what you have…or even ground chicken or turkey.

Says the cattle rancher.

And fresh parsley is all I had, but in the summer I like to use a lot of fresh basil, too. Gives it a nice herby flavor.

You also need red pepper flakes. It’ll give the sauce some kick.

And wine—wine is good. I was fresh out—hiccup!—but it really adds a nice flavor.

Okay, the first thing I needed to do was make some breadcrumbs since I never have any store bought breadcrumbs on hand. I had some day-old French bread, so I sliced it lengthwise and put it in a 250 degree oven for about 25 minutes or so. This just dries it out and gets it nice and crispy and hard. That’s what you want for breadcrumbs.

Break the hard, crusty bread into pieces and throw them into the bowl of a food processor.

Pulse the bread several times until it’s mostly broken up.

Then measure it out and have it ready.

Now, in a bowl combine the breadcrumbs with the meat and two eggs…

Then add plenty of freshly grated parmesan…

And some parsley and garlic.

And finally, a splash of milk and plenty of freshly ground black pepper and a little salt. The parmesan is salty, so don’t overdo it.

Use your grubby little hands to mix it all together…

Then scoop out balls and roll them up neatly.

I don’t care what I do or how many times I throw this together, I always—always wind up with 25 meatballs. And I’m always searching for the hidden significance in that number. What does it all mean? Why don’t I ever wind up with 24 meatballs, or 26?

After you roll them out, stick the pan into the freezer for about 5 or 10 minutes. This just firms them up a little and helps them stay together while they brown.

Next, heat up some olive oil in a heavy pot or skillet. Just make sure it’s large enough to hold the sauce ingredients, because I don’t believe in using separate pans in situations like this.

It’s simply against my set of beliefs.

When the oil is hot, add about eight of the meatballs.

Cook them for a couple of minutes, turning them to brown on all sides.

Remove the meatballs when they’re brown on the outside but not done on the inside. We’ll want them to finish cooking in the sauce later.

Repeat with all the meatballs until they’re all browned and delicious.

Keep the same pot over medium-high heat…

Then throw in the onions and garlic.

Stir it around and cook for a couple of minutes…

Then pour in the crushed tomatoes…

And the whole tomatoes with their juice. You can add the wine here, if you’re using it.

Then add some red pepper flakes. (Note: I did not use all of these; I just sprinkled in a healthy pinch.)

Next, stir in the parsley.

Then add salt, pepper and a little bit of sugar, just to counteract the acid in the tomatoes.

Heat it up and cook the sauce for about 20 minutes, just to get the ball rolling.

Then carefully add the meat-a-balls…

And stir them into the sauce.

Now you just allow the sauce to simmer for about 30 more minutes. The yummy juices inside the meatballs will work their way into the sauce, giving it some really delicious flavor…and the meatballs themselves will eventually turn into little nuggets of love.

Stir the sauce very gently a couple of times.

And that’s it, my darlings! Perfect, rich and yummy.

You’re cooking spaghetti in the meantime, right? Right. Add it to a generously-sized bowl.

Oh, and make sure the spaghetti’s al dente! No mushy noodles allowed.

And pile on the sauce. You could also just serve the whole thing on a huge platter; I do this if I have company, which is about once a decade. It makes an impressive presentation!

And then…(you know where I’m headed…)

Pile on the parmesan.

And serve it up to an adoring crowd with garlic bread and Caesar salad. The perfect meal.

Enjoy!