Pasta With Meatballs

By Nigella Lawson

Pasta With Meatballs
Craig Lee for The New York Times
Total Time
1 hour
Rating
4(834)
Comments
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Carbohydrate avoidance be damned: pasta with meatballs is the perfect culinary counter to the cruel world. Just looking at a slippery, tomato-sauced tangle of spaghetti topped with juicy toothsome meatballs makes you feel better; eating it is the instant antidote to whatever ails you. The recipe here makes more sauce, perhaps, than you'd normally want to use to dress a pound of pasta, but when I sit down to eat with the children I want to make sure I'm not going to have to get up and make them anything else to eat before they go to bed. (Of course you can freeze a portion of little meatballs in sauce for easy access in meals ahead. They need not accompany a bowl of pasta. My children like them just as much with a mound of plain white rice. Who wouldn't?)

Featured in: AT MY TABLE; Turning a Kitchen Into Child's Play

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Ingredients

Yield:4 servings

    For the Meatballs

    • 8ounces ground pork
    • 8ounces ground beef
    • 1large egg, lightly beaten
    • 2tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
    • 1garlic clove, peeled and minced
    • 1teaspoon dried oregano
    • 3tablespoons bread crumbs or semolina
    • 1teaspoon salt
    • Freshly ground black pepper

    For the Sauce

    • 1onion, peeled and halved
    • 2garlic cloves, peeled
    • 1teaspoon dried oregano
    • 1tablespoon unsalted butter
    • 1tablespoon olive oil
    • 2cups tomato passata (available at specialty food stores) or pureed canned tomatoes (not canned tomato puree, which is thicker)
    • Pinch of sugar
    • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
    • ½cup whole milk
    • 1pound spaghetti, tagliatelle or linguine, cooked to taste
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)

887 calories; 35 grams fat; 13 grams saturated fat; 1 gram trans fat; 15 grams monounsaturated fat; 3 grams polyunsaturated fat; 100 grams carbohydrates; 8 grams dietary fiber; 9 grams sugars; 41 grams protein; 1031 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Prepare meatballs: In a large bowl, combine pork, beef, egg, Parmesan, garlic, oregano, bread crumbs, salt and pepper to taste. Mix thoroughly but lightly, handling mixture as little as possible.

  2. Step 2

    Line a baking sheet with plastic wrap. Shape rounded teaspoonfuls of meat mixture into balls 1 inch in diameter, and place on plastic. Refrigerate while making sauce.

  3. Step 3

    Prepare sauce: Combine onion, garlic and oregano in a food processor, and puree until smooth. Combine butter and oil in a wide, deep pan, and place over low heat until butter melts. Add onion-garlic mixture. Simmer, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes; do not brown. Add passata and 2 cups water to pan. Season with sugar, and salt and pepper to taste.

  4. Step 4

    Simmer for 10 minutes, then add milk and bring sauce back to a simmer. Gently drop in meatballs one by one so that they do not break (make sure the meatballs are submerged); do not stir pan. Cover pan partially with a lid, and simmer for 20 minutes.

  5. Step 5

    Adjust seasonings to taste. Place hot pasta in a large serving bowl. Pour most of sauce (reserving meatballs) on pasta, and toss to combine. Top pasta with meatballs, and serve.

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Ratings

4 out of 5
834 user ratings
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Comments

Jim

Sorry, if you do not sauté/brown the meatballs first, they taste like boiled meat having very little interest or flavor. Don't be lazy . . . brown the meatballs and then put them into the sauce.

Suzanne

I did a taste test for the meatballs. Oven roasted vs dropped raw into the sauce (my sauce). The raw, dropped in the sauce won 100%, hands down. And oh, btw, never brown them, they are not rocks, but light and fluffy delights. From an Italian.

C.Ferretti

As I am from Perusia, IT, we use Marjoram and parsley and a bit of lemon peel in our meatballs instead of oregano. It is a more delicate flavor— oregano can be overpowering and was used to give the sauce more flavor if you lacked meat. Cooking the meatballs in the sauce releases these flavors and the cheese into the sauce and gives it a silky body. Also no oregano in the sauce... we also don’t purée the onions and if we chop them we always leave an 1/8 of the onion to stud with 3 or 4 cloves—

Elaine

I was looking for a recipe suitable for a friend who is having dental issues and could only eat soft foods. I found this recipe incredibly easy and tasty. Everybody - even those without dental issues - enjoyed it. I did not brown the meatballs and they cooked perfectly in the sauce. Since I could only buy 1 lb. packages of ground beef and pork, I put the remainder in the freezer and will make this again soon.

AA

People, people, people! Not browning meatballs isn’t a crime, it’s just another way to do things. Nigella’s method is a gift if you’re craving easily prepared comfort food after a gnarly workday.

Alfonso Lev Solis

Absolutely delicious recipe—no ifs, ands, or buts about it!

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