The Best Spaghetti and Meatballs

- Amanda

We’re starting a new week and I’ve got a great dinner that’s delicious, fairly easy, healthy with the addition of some hidden veggies, and can be stretched out to more than one meal. Unless you want to feed a crowd, then it can do that too. I really do think these are The Best Spaghetti and Meatballs. And I hope you will too.

Have you made meatballs that you have to stand over a hot pan browning them to get a perfect crust? I have too. But that’s not what we’re gonna do here. The weather is too warm for that, and we’re tired from one thing or another in this crazy new reality we’re living in. So that’s why we’re going to bake these. They will still get nice and brown and stay just the right amount of tender and juicy that we want. That’s the magic of the shredded zucchini in these. Besides adding a (disguised) green veggie to this meal, it also lends a great amount of moisture to the meatballs making them so delectable. Trust me, popping one or two into your mouth before they even hit the sauce will be hard to resist.

About the sauce, it’s about as easy as it comes. Based on my favorite sauce, none other than Marcella Hazan’s simple but perfect tomato, onion and butter sauce, this yummy marinara uses the season’s ripest tomatoes (though canned is ok too,) with the butter, onion, a little garlic and some salt and pepper. I like to give this a quick whiz with the immersion blender to make it an extra silky and smooth pool for the meatballs. This really is the perfect combination of a classic dish highlighting fresh summer produce. Doesn’t get better than that right?

And if you’re not eating beef these days, then you can easily sub ground turkey instead. This is usually my preferred choice, but I can’t get ground turkey here, so when I do use beef, I try to lighten it up as well as stretch it out over a few meals. This recipe makes about 30 ping pong-sized cute little meatballs. So what I like to do is, use half for the spaghetti. That gives the four of us about 2 meatballs per plate for two night’s of dinner. Then I freeze the other half in a glass container to make one of the kids’ favorite dishes, meatball sliders. Or of course you can save for another pasta night. This is my favorite kind of cooking. Getting more bang for the buck, and having to do less work in the long-run. Those days when you realize you don’t have anything for dinner in mind, voila, just grab those frozen meatballs? And done.

To serve these, I like to keep everything right in the pot. You could always put them in a pretty serving dish, but I think it’s ok to be a little less fancy sometimes. To get maximum sauce coverage without breaking those delicate little meatballs, I put a little sauce over the meatballs in a small bowl to lightly coat. Then I go to town tossing the cooked, hot spaghetti right in the pan where I cooked the the sauce, and then lovingly nestle those meatballs in all the nooks and crannies. Throw on some fresh basil, grated parm and some red pepper flakes and get your spaghetti and (healthy) meatball grub on. Enjoy!

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The Best Spaghetti & Meatballs

Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Servings 6

Ingredients

  • 1 lb spaghetti

For the Beef & Zucchini Meatballs:

  • 1 tsp extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 medium yellow onion, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 lb ground beef
  • 1 cup shredded, drained zucchini (about 2 small/ med zucchini)
  • 3/4 cup panko (or regular breadcrumbs)
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
  • 1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
  • 1 lg egg, beaten
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 1 tsp worcestershire
  • 1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper

For the tomato sauce:

  • 3 tbsps butter
  • 1 medium yellow onion, halved
  • 1 clove garlic, smashed
  • 2 lbs tomatoes, chopped with their juices (or a 28oz can tomatoes)
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • fresh ground pepper
  • 1 tsp granulated sugar (only if necessary)

To finish:

  • fresh grated parmesan cheese
  • fresh basil leaves
  • red pepper flakes

Instructions

For the meatballs

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F/177C. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.

  2. In a small saute pan, heat the olive oil and sweat the onions, covered, until soft. Then add the minced garlic and cook about a minute more until fragrant. Set aside to cool.

  3. In a large bowl, add the ground beef, shredded zucchini (make sure it's drained really well in a clean towel,) and the rest of the meatball ingredients. Add the sauteed onions and garlic to the bowl and using clean hands gently mix everything together until well combined.

  4. Use an ice cream scoop (my preferred method) or a spoon and scoop out even-sized rounds and form into balls. Set onto the sheet pan lined with parchment paper, with a little space in between each one. (I get about 30 ping pong-sized balls.)

  5. Bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes, until browned on top. Rotate the pan halfway through baking. Set aside until ready to put in the sauce.

For the sauce:

  1. While the meatballs are baking, quickly put together the tomato sauce by adding the butter to a large saucepan. Melt the butter then add the crushed garlic until frangant and place the onion halves, cut side down in the pan and the tomatoes with their juices. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat, then turn it down and simmer for about 40 minutes. (Cover the pan partially if it thickens too much.)

  2. Cook for about 40 minutes until the tomatoes have cooked down to a sauce and the onion is soft. (When the sauce is almost through cooking, bring a large pot of water to a boil and cook pasta according to package instructions. Reserve a little of the cooking liquid, then drain.)

  3. Once the sauce is finished cooking, season with salt and pepper if necessary and if the tomatoes aren't at peak flavor, stir in the sugar. Then, remove the onion, and use an immersion blender to puree the sauce. Add the onion halves back in if desired.

To assemble the spaghetti and meatballs:

  1. Carefully place the meatballs, (reserving some for another meal if desired,) in a bowl and ladle a bit of the sauce over the meatballs and turn gently to coat just a little.

  2. Add the cooked spaghetti to the pan with the rest of the sauce, and toss to coat, adding a bit of the reseved cooking liquid if needed to thin out. Nestle the sauced meatballs into the pasta. Grate some fresh parm on top and tear plenty of fresh basil over the pasta. Garnish with red pepper flakes if desired and enjoy while hot. (*Alternatively, add the spaghetti to a large serving platter if desired, then the meatballs then the garnishes if you prefer to present it that way. )

*Sauce slightly adapted from Marcella Hazan.