National Spaghetti Day

January 4th was National Spaghetti Day! I love spaghetti and meatballs but I do not like all the work of making meatballs (and I'm not very good at it either). So I usually just fry up the hamburger and throw it in the sauce, NO MEATBALLS. But I could not cheat on National Spaghetti Day. So I went looking for an EASY meatball recipe, and I found it! These meatballs were delicious and easy. Never again will my family have to settle for meat sauce instead of meatballs.

So here is the recipe and the pictures....

Italian Spaghetti an Meatballs by Etta Winter, The Taste of Home Cookbook


2 cans (28 ounces each) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can (12 ounces) tomato paste
1 1/2 cups water, divided
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons brown sugar (this is my own addition as we like our spaghetti sauce sweet)
3 tablespoons grated onion
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 1/2 teaspoons salt, divided
1 teaspoon minced garlic, divided
3/4 teaspoon pepper, divided
1 bay leaf
6 slices day-old bread, torn into pieces (I used the rest of the French bread that I made on Sunday. I will make sure that I have leftover homemade bread for this recipe every time)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 pound ground beef (I used 1 1/2 pounds)
Hot cooked spaghetti
Additional Parmesan cheese

In a Dutch oven, combine the tomatoes, tomato paste, 1 cup water, sugar, grated onion, oregano, 1-1/2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon garlic, 1/2 teaspoon pepper and bay leaf. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 1-1/4 hours.
Meanwhile, soak bread in remaining water (next time I am going to soak the bread in milk instead of water). Squeeze out excess moisture. In a large bowl, combine the bread, eggs, Parmesan cheese, and remaining salt, garlic and pepper. Crumble beef over mixture and mix well. Shape into 1-1/2-inch meatballs.
Place meatballs on a greased rack in a shallow baking pan. Bake, uncovered, at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until no longer pink (mine took exactly 20 minutes). Transfer to spaghetti sauce. Simmer, uncovered until heated through, stirring occasionally. Discard the bay leaf (I discarded the bay leaf before I added the meatballs so it would be easier to find). Serve over spaghetti with additional Parmesan if desired.


YES, that is homemade garlic bread that you see on the plate and YES I will be posting that recipe soon!