Spaghetti & Meatballs with Veal & Pork

Trigger warning: the following post may include some terrible pasta puns.

This year, I was lucky to explore the pasta-bilities that a little flour and eggs could hold... someone close to me bought a pasta roller and my 2024 dreams of delving into pasta became a reality. It turns out, making pasta was not the clouds-of-flour-descending-over-the-kitchen debacle I had envisioned.

A cup of flour, two eggs and some salt are all you need. Pasta rollers are cheap, and as soon as you roll out your noodles, you can pop the roller into the dishwasher to clean.

If you're feeling saucy, I'm saving my favorite recipes on the blog this fall, starting with this spaghetti & meatballs that I made with veal, pork and beef.

Happy cooking and... Pasta la vista, baby! ;)

MEATBALLS

Ingredients

• 1 pound each ground beef, veal and pork

• 1 cup freshly grated Romano cheese

• 2 cups Panko bread crumbs

• 1 cup lukewarm water

• 1 tbsp parsley, chopped

• 3 eggs

• Garlic, chopped

Mix the ingredients and set aside a couple handfuls for the meat sauce. Make the rest into meatballs. Once you have the sauce ready and simmering (see below), cook the meatballs in olive oil heated in a skillet, 10 to 15 minutes. Drain on paper towels.

MEAT SAUCE

Ingredients

• 1 onion, chopped

• Garlic, chopped

• 1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes

• 2 (6.5 ounce) cans tomato sauce

• 2 (6 ounce) cans tomato pasta

• 0.5 cup water

• 2 tablespoons white sugar

• 1.5 teaspoons dried basil

• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

Sauté the onions in olive oil until translucent, then add the meat from the meatball mixture (above) and brown the meat. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Add the remaining ingredients, stir, cover and turn on low. Simmer for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

BASIC EGG PASTA DOUGH

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups flour

• 2 eggs

• Pinch of salt

Knead the dough for a few minutes, then wrap it in saran wrap and let it sit for 30 minutes. It should not be too sticky, so add more flour if needed. After 30 minutes, roll it out to 1/2" to 1/4" thickness, then roll it through the pasta roller's settings, starting at 1 and progressing to 10 as it gets thinner. Process it into spaghetti noodles with your roller, then throw into some boiling water for 3 minutes.

BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER

Combine your noodles, meat sauce and meatballs into your skillet and mix to combine. Buon appetito!