Spaghetti and Meatballs

Have you ever tasted good meatball? The most important part about spaghetti and meatball is the meatball! I make my meatball different than other recipes I’ve seen. I use hot Italian sausages. 😉 This quick and easy recipe takes about 20 minutes to make. Give it a try! I guarantee you will never go back to ordering this dish at restaurants after you find out how easy it is to make yourself at home!

 Ingredients:

Serves: 6-8

• 1 pack hot Italian sausages
• 1 pack spaghetti
• 2 cans tomato purée
• 1 egg
• half onion
• ¼ cup parsley
• 1 clove garlic
• ¼ cup olive oil
• ¼ cup parmesan cheese
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon organic cold milled flax seeds

I like to buy the tomato purée that has extra ingredients such as basil and other herbs. It makes the spaghetti sauce so much more flavourful. I prefer to use hot Italian sausages as opposed to ground beef and pork since I like the spiciness and again, the extra flavours. The cornstarch makes the meat tender.

The secret ingredient is flax seeds. If you haven’t heard about the health benefits of flax seeds… please click here: Flax Seeds !!! It has omega-3 essential fatty acids, lignans, and fiber. I add about 1 teaspoon to my yogurt, soup, and on certain foods like meatballs, when you can’t tell that I hid some in there. Some people may not like the taste of flax seeds. I am sneaky when it comes to eating healthy…

First, add the 1 teaspoon of salt, black pepper, ground garlic, cornstarch, parsley, egg, flax seeds, and parmesan cheese to the large bowl to mix. Make sure you add all of this before adding the meat so that it is easier to mix everything.

Chop up the garlic, onion, and parsley and put them aside for now. Take the skin off the sausages and toss all the meat into the large bowl. Now start mixing!

Here is the fun part. Rolling the meat into meatballs. It’s your choice how big you want to make them however, the bigger the meatballs, the longer you will need to cook them. I love BIG meatballs so I went with that. I placed my tray of meatballs in the fridge for an hour but this step is completely optional. It just helps to shape it better.

Add a pinch of salt to boiling water and cook the spaghetti over medium-low heat for about 7 minutes.

Time to make the sauce. Place the olive oil in a small pot on high heat and sauté the garlic and onion. Cook until it is golden brown and turn the heat to medium-low. Pour in the 2 cans of tomato purée and stir every 2 minutes so that it doesn’t burn at the bottom of the pot.

Pour the rest of the olive oil onto the skillet and cook the outer parts of the meatballs for about 5 minutes. You might need to cook them in 2 batches, depending on how big your skillet is and how many meatballs you have.

When you’re finished cooking your meatballs, it should look something like this. Don’t worry, we are definitely not eating raw meatballs. Toss the meatballs into the pot of sauce and let it slowly cook in low heat for about 15 minutes.

Garnish with fresh parsley and grated parmesan cheese. Enjoy! 🙂