Who doesn’t love meatballs and red sauce? Someone has even cleverly written a song about it, but I promise not to begin singing….
One thing that annoys me about making meatballs is standing at the stove frying them. Baking them is an option, but they usually get lopsided and strange. After scouring the internet for recipe ideas, I decided to try sinking the meatballs into a pan of sauce and baking them together. The results???
A-mmmmmm-azing!
Now it is my default method of making meatballs in sauce.
The sauce itself is loaded with flavor because there truly are 3 types of tomato: diced, paste, and sun dried. Each type contributes something unique.
- The diced tomatoes are light and fresh, tasting like summertime in the garden.
- The tomato paste adds rich texture and robust tomato-i-ness that intensifies with caramelization.
- Sun dried tomatoes provide a sweet/tart/salty uniqueness that just can’t be duplicated any other way.
I always have some stray slices of gluten free bread in the freezer, which get thawed, cubed, drowned in milk, and put into the meat.
While the bread is soaking, begin the sauce. Heat olive oil over medium heat in the largest oven-safe frying pan you can find, and then melt the butter in it. Add the onion, cover the pan, and let them “sweat” for a couple minutes. Toss in the garlic, and stir frequently. Don’t allow the onions or garlic to brown.
Add the tomato paste, and allow that to melt in and become fragrant and caramelized.
Dump in the diced, canned tomatoes and the sun dried tomatoes. Pour in some lovely, deep red wine, and a bunch of basil that has been lightly chopped. Allow this to simmer for about 15 minutes while you make the meatballs.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
In a large bowl, put 2 pounds lean, grass-fed ground beef, the eggs, grated parmesan, grated garlic, chopped parsley, and some of the oil from the sun dried tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper, and crushed fennel. (I just smash the fennel a few times with my mortar and pestle, but running it thru a coffee or spice mill is also an option.) The fennel gives the meatballs a great sausage-like flavour, and the parsley brightens and lightens the flavour.
Drain off any milk that hasn’t soaked into the bread, and add the bread to the meat. Using your hands, squish all that stuff through your fingers until combined, but don’t over-mix it.
With damp hands, roll the meat mixture into large meatballs – plan on around a dozen meatballs per pound of beef. Sink them into the hot sauce. The tops will be exposed, but it will be cozy in there!
Bake for 20 minutes. Sprinkle freshly grated parmesan cheese over all of the meatballs, and bake another 5 minutes.
Even though this could be served with any kind of pasta, I prefer enjoying the incredible flavours without all that starch competing for attention. We serve this with —
a vegetable – broccoli
a salad – caprese
and a little bread to mop up the sauce
Nope. Life doesn’t get much better than this!!!
Print
Roasted Meatballs with Triple Tomato Sauce
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 6-8 1x
Description
Oven-roasted meatballs in sauce
Ingredients
- 2 cups bread, diced
- 1/2 cup milk
- 2 pounds lean, grass-fed ground beef
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup freshly grated parmesan
- 4 cloves garlic, minced or grated
- 1/2 cup parsley leaves, chopped
- 1 tsp fennel, crushed
- 2 Tbsp oil from the sun dried tomatoes
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 1 small onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced or grated
- 2 Tbsp tomato paste
- 1 – 28 ounce can diced tomatoes
- 1 – 14 ounce can diced tomatoes
- 2 Tbsp oil-packed sun dried tomatoes, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup red wine
- 1 cup basil leaves, chopped
- Additional freshly grated parmesan for topping
Instructions
- Soak the break cubes in the milk
- Heat olive oil in a very large oven-safe frying pan over medium heat, then melt the butter in the hot oil
- Add the diced onions, cover, and allow them to “sweat” for a couple minutes, then add the garlic, and cook for another minute or two
- Stir in the tomato paste, giving it a couple minutes to melt into the oils, become fragrant and slightly caramelized
- Dump in the tomatoes, wine, sun dried tomatoes, and chopped basil, and allow to simmer for 15 minutes
- In a large bowl, combine meat, eggs, 1 cup parmesan, garlic, crushed fennel, parsley, salt and pepper, and some oil from the sun dried tomatoes, and soggy bread cubes (drain away any excess milk), and mix with hands until combined, but don’t over-handle the meat
- With damp hands, roll meat into large balls – somewhere around 20-24 balls – then gently sink the meatballs into the hot sauce, right in the frying pan (it will be crowded, and the tops of the meatballs should be uncovered)
- Bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes
- Sprinkle with additional grated parmesan, approximately 1/2 cup, and return to oven for 5 minutes
Notes
Serve over pasta, zucchini noodles, crusty garlic bread, or steamed vegetables
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 4-5 meatballs each
