This comforting meal of spaghetti and meatballs is the perfect meal prep meal. The buttery meatballs with thick stewed tomato sauce make for the perfect family meal.

One of my favourite non-Polish comfort foods is spaghetti and meatballs. You may already know that I love meat in sauce so of course this dish delivers. Light and flavourful meatballs and an almost buttery tomato sauce make for the perfect combo.

This traditional Italian dish is a great freezer meal or it is perfect for meal prep. Just make extra meatballs when making this for dinner and either freeze for later or refrigerate until you’re ready for it later in the week.

Preparing Spaghetti and Meatballs with Tomato Sauce from Sratch

Ingredients

Meat

Ground pork: Ground pork, or minced pork, is made from from other cuts of meat. The extra bits are put through a grinder or sometimes might be finely chopped. Ground pork is usually lean and therefore has some fat content.

Ground beef: Ground beef can come from many parts of the cow so you have a preference make sure to read the label. It is usually made from the trimmings of other, larger cuts of beef and is then ground. It is the star of this dish so you want to make sure it’s not too fatty. With that said, if you prefer the flavour of fattier ground meat then by all means. Don’t let me take away your joy!

Dairy

Egg: Eggs are laid by many different animals but chicken eggs are what we use in this recipe. Eggs provide protein, fat and many other nutrients and therefore are a healthy part of our diet. Here they are used as a binder.

Grated parmesan: Grated parmesan cheese is perfect for this recipe, and I don’t mean freshly grated. The relatively inexpensive pre-grated type is just right here. The flavour is perfect and I always find it a bit of a waste to use the freshly grated stuff in a sauce where it just melts away. Save the expensive fresh stuff for topping your pasta.

Parmigiano Reggiano: It is a hard Italian cheese, made from cow milk that has been aged for at least a year. It is only made in very specific regions in Italy therefore the name can only be applied to cheese originating from these areas.

Pantry

Italian seasoning: Italian seasoning is a mixture of multiple spices. Typically it includes oregano, thyme, basil, rosemary and marjoram.

Onion powder: Onion powder is made from dehydrated onions which are then ground. White, yellow or red onions can be used to make onion powder. It is a very common spice that is used in many spice mixes.

Garlic powder: Garlic powder is dehydrated garlic ground to a powder. It’s sweeter than raw garlic so it just adds a hint of garlic flavour without the sharpness.

Dried basil: Basil, also called sweet basil, is an annual herb that is grown for its fragrant leaves. It is part of the mint family and is native to Asia

. It is used in cooking all over the world for its slightly sweet and very distinct flavour.

Dried oregano: Oregano is a plant from the mint family. It’s used as s herb and has a very potent flavour. Dried oregano is the leaves of a fresh plant that has been air-dried.

Sugar: White or granulated sugar is refined sugar made from either cane sugar or beet sugar. It is completely freed of molasses through the refining process and ground to granules smaller than salt.

Bread crumbs: Bread crumbs are simply ground-up dried bread. I actually make my own. I save the ends of bread loaves and let them dry out. Then I throw them in the blender and voila, bread crumbs.

Passata: Passata is strained tomatoes which has the consistency of tomato sauce. Once cooked down it thickens slightly but not too much as it doesn’t have too much excess liquid.

How to Make Spaghetti and Meatballs

There are a few steps to this recipe and what may seem like a lot of ingredients but don’t worry, it’s all very simple. We use very similar herbs in both the sauce and meatballs so don’t put anything away right away.

Step 1: Make the Meatballs

We’ll start with making the meatballs. I like to use a stand mixer to make this task easier and faster but you can easily just use a large bowl and your hands.

Add the ground meat, egg, Italian seasoning, onion powder, garlic powder, dried basil, bread crumbs and grated parmesan to a bowl. Mix until combined plus another 30 seconds or so.

TIP: The more you mix the meat the more dense the meatballs will be. Though we like fluffy meatballs we have to make sure they don’t fall apart while cooking in the sauce so here we mix a little longer than usual.

You’ll note that in our other meatball recipes like the all-purpose meatballs, or meatballs in mushroom sauce, we’re not cooking the meatballs in the oven or almost fully through in the pan so the meatballs are not at risk of falling apart. For this recipe, we do fry the meatballs a bit before cooking in the sauce but this is just to seal in the juices rather than to cook the meatballs.

Once the meat mixture is ready, shape it into balls. But before shaping, add some oil to a large deep pan and heat up on medium heat.

To shape the meatballs I use 2 tablespoons worth of meat mixture per meatball. I like them on the bigger size but also don’t want to wait forever for them to cook. This is my perfect balance. If you like giant meatballs go for it just make sure to adjust your cooking time accordingly.

Once the oil is hot, add the meatballs to the pan, I used a Dutch oven, and sear on each side for about 2 minutes per side then remove them from the pan and set aside. Repeat until all the meatballs are seared.

Step 2: Make the sauce

In the same pan, or Dutch oven, that you seared the meatballs in add all of the sauce ingredients. Stir everything well to combine then add the meatballs back to the sauce, cover and simmer on low until the spaghetti is ready, roughly 20 minutes.

Step 3: Cook the spaghetti

Last but most certainly not least, we need to cook the noodles. Add 5 litres of water to a large pot and set to boil. Once the water comes to a boil add the spaghetti noodles to the pot and stir occasionally. Cook until al dente per the package instructions.

Substitutions

Ground Beef and Pork: You can use any kind of ground meat that you prefer. I often make these meatballs with ground turkey and they are delicious.

Spaghetti: Even though this dish is called spaghetti and meatballs it doesn’t mean that you can’t substitute the spaghetti. Use linguine or fettuccine instead and no one will notice.

Herbs: If you don’t have Italian seasoning add equal parts oregano and basil to substitute. It’s not exactly the same but it will be just as delicious. If you don’t have basil and oregano add a little more Italian seasoning and you’re all set.

Spices: It’s not a big deal if you don’t have garlic powder or onion powder. It won’t ruin your meal to skip either one.

Serving Homemade Spaghetti and Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

I like to serve the al dente spaghetti topped with the sauce and meatballs. You can also mix all the noodles with the sauce in the pan then serve the meatballs on top.