Meatballs and Spaghetti

Since I have been nothing but Asian dishes in the past couple of weeks, I decided to be nice to Porgy and make him Meatballs and Spaghetti using Ina Garten's recipe. Instead of using a mix of ground beef, pork and veal, I used half ground pork and half breakfast sausage from Fatted Calf and added some chopped basil to the meatball mix and to the sauce.


Ingredients:

For the meatballs:
1 pound ground pork
1 pound uncooked breakfast sausage
1 1/4 cup dry bread crumbs
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 cup chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 extra-large egg, beaten
Vegetable oil
Olive oil

For the sauce:
1 tablespoon good olive oil
1 cup chopped yellow onion (1 onion)
1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/2 cup good red wine, such as Chianti
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 cup chopped fresh basil
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For serving:
nocoupons1 1/2 pounds spaghetti, cooked according to package directions
Freshly grated Parmesan

Directions:

• Place the ground meats, bread crumbs, parsley, basil, Parmesan, salt, pepper, nutmeg, egg, and 3/4 cup warm water in a bowl. Combine very lightly with a fork.
  
• Using your hands, lightly form the mixture into 2-inch meatballs. You will have 18-20 meatballs.
• Pour equal amounts of vegetable oil and olive oil into a large (12-inch) skillet to a depth of 1/4-inch. Heat the oil.
  
• Very carefully, in batches, place the meatballs in the oil and brown them well on all sides over medium-low heat, turning carefully with a spatula or a fork. This should take about 10 minutes for each batch. Don't crowd the meatballs.
  
• Remove the meatballs to a plate covered with paper towels. Discard the oil but don't clean the pan.
• For the sauce, heat the olive oil in the same pan. Add the onion and saute over medium heat until translucent, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute.
  
• Add the wine and cook on high heat, scraping up all the brown bits in the pan, until almost all the liquid evaporates, about 3 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, parsley, salt, and pepper.
• Return the meatballs to the sauce, cover, and simmer on the lowest heat for 25 to 30 minutes, until the meatballs are cooked through.
  
• Serve hot on cooked spaghetti and top with grated Parmesan.