Basic Sauce for Meatballs

andrew1977

Hi

Can anyone help me with a basic sauce to prepare for meatballs.

I have the meatballs, have the pasta, just need somebody to help me with a very basic sauce for coooking for tonight.

I have none of the ingredients for the sauce, will hit the shop this evening to pick them up, i had a look online at some recipes , some of the ingredients i dont think i would fancy eating.

Thanks to all

anbrutog

andrew1977 wrote: »

Hi

Can anyone help me with a basic sauce to prepare for meatballs.

I have the meatballs, have the pasta, just need somebody to help me with a very basic sauce for coooking for tonight.

I have none of the ingredients for the sauce, will hit the shop this evening to pick them up, i had a look online at some recipes , some of the ingredients i dont think i would fancy eating.

Thanks to all

Hey Andrew ,

My Meatballs sauce recipe ( should do 3-4 'hungry' people )

Ingredients
=========
Bulb of garlic
7-8 Green chillis
Oregano
Ball of Mozarella
4 tins of tomatoes ( try and avoid the cheap own brand stuff, I like Napolina's )
red wine
parsley
basil
meatballs
parmesan cheese
Extra virgin olive oil
Side serving of rocket with lemon & sesame oil dressing with parmesan shavings
Served with pasta , personally I go with tagatelle.
2* bay leaves.

Chop up the garlic and chillis. The amount of garlic and chilli you put in is a matter of preference , personally I like a liberal amount. Blitz the garlic and chilli together in a food processor , adding a nice dash of olive oil with a good sprinkling of parmesan to make it nice and fluid. Chop up the rest of the herbs and the mozarella ball and leave to one side. I usually brown my meatballs for a couple of minutes in the pan before hand but again this is a matter of taste.
Fry the paste in a large pot on a medium heat for a few minutes until its nice and fragrant. Add the tomatoes and bring to the boil , then bring the heat back down again and let simmer on medium to low heat. Add a cup of red wine ( cheap stuff will do ) , stir in the mozarella and add a few teaspoons of oregano and the bay leaves. Add salt and pepper to taste.Leave this to simmer for around 30 minutes at least on a low heat , stirring regularly. When the mixture looks like its reducing and getting nice and thick add the meatballs, and simmer for about 10 more minutes , making sure the meatballs are cooked through ( v important obviously ).
When the mixture is cooked at the end add a decent helping of chopped parsley and basil. Serve with pasta and a nice side salad of rocket with lemon and sesame oil dressing, sprinkled with grated parmesan.

Sure I missed some details as I'm writing this at work but will review it again later!

andrew1977

Hi anbrutog

Wow, big recipe.. many thanks for that.
For me that would be one hell of a task to whip that up this evening, only a newbie on the "attempting " to cook decent recipe.
Might try it over the weekend.
Anything more basic and simple with not a huge amount of ingredients and preparation

Thanks again

olaola

I literally just put the can of tomatoes in the pot, add seasoning, smoked paprika, tomato puree, some chilli flakes and a pinch of sugar. Then plop the raw meatballs into the liquid. Will cook them through in about 10 mins with lid on.

Ci2co

Hi all,

If the meatballs are seasoned I quite like a simple tomato sauce.

Add some oil to a pot, add 3 to 4 cloves of garlic (whole) and a chilly (whole)
Gently fry them for 5 mins without burning them. Add 2 tins of tomatoes, tablespoon of sugar and a teaspoon of oregano. Simmer for 20 mins.
Add Meatball to heat through.

or if you're in a rush:

Try SuperValu's own brand Spicy Tomato sauce. All natural ingredients and is about a euro a pot. Is quite nice.

-C

grandslamsmith

Seriously the bigger the recipe teh worse it's gona be - forget the lists above!!

Basic tomato sauce
Chopped plum tomatos
Fresh basil
Olive oil
Garlic
Season

Deep fry your meatballs by the way and stay the fook away from anything out of a jar out of Supervalu!!

andrew1977

grandslamsmith wrote: »

Seriously the bigger the recipe teh worse it's gona be - forget the lists above!!

Basic tomato sauce
Chopped plum tomatos
Fresh basil
Olive oil
Garlic
Season

Deep fry your meatballs by the way and stay the fook away from anything out of a jar out of Supervalu!!

This seems grand for what i want for this evening.
Whats the cooking method ? All into a pot and go for it
Sorry for all the questions, its my first attempt at making a home made sauce and i need things clear as a bell for me not to poison myself:)

anbrutog

grandslamsmith wrote: »

Seriously the bigger the recipe teh worse it's gona be - forget the lists above!!

Basic tomato sauce
Chopped plum tomatos
Fresh basil
Olive oil
Garlic
Season

Deep fry your meatballs by the way and stay the fook away from anything out of a jar out of Supervalu!!

Im not sure if your referring to my 'bigger' recipe but theres certainly nothing extra that would anyway diminish its taste , quite the opposite in fact.

grandslamsmith

Mate, my Italian brother in law made this for me over the holidays and it blew me side ways!

Meatballs
Mince (season with balck pepper)
Parmesan cheese
egg yolk

Ball up and deep fry - set aside.

saucepan - heat the garlic in oil, add toms and ripped basil. drop in the meatballs cook out for a few minutes...doneski beat.

Some people advocate adding sugar which is fine if you bought your tomatos (or pasata) in Lidl or Dunnes ie crud.

Slam

grandslamsmith

anbrutog wrote: »

Im not sure if your referring to my 'bigger' recipe but theres certainly nothing extra that would anyway diminish its taste , quite the opposite in fact.

Yip - tooooo much goin on for a classic meatball sauce anbrutog. It's a sauce I will grant you but yer lillies just been bronzed rather than gilded!

trackguy

Nigella Lawson has a lovely recipe for meatballs where she adds parmesan to the meatballs and then adds milk to the tomato sauce. It makes it nice and creamy.

The tomato sauce she uses is similar to the one advocated by GrandSlam.

Sugar should be added to tinned tomatoes, unless u buy some nice Italian ones. The supermarket brands are generally too acidic.

Chilli is also nice in a tomato sauce if u like it spicy.

anbrutog

grandslamsmith wrote: »

Yip - tooooo much goin on for a classic meatball sauce anbrutog. It's a sauce I will grant you but yer lillies just been bronzed rather than gilded!

Ah well, depends how you like it I guess. I like it rich myself.
All a matter of taste.

grandslamsmith

...and that's the wonderful thing about it

RJC09

I made a basic tomato sauce last night, two tins of choppped tomatoes, 2-4 cloves of garlic, teaspoon of sugar, tablespoon of olive oil and basil,salt and pepper. Throw it into a pot over a medium low heat, leave it for 45-60 mins to reduce.

good luck!

The Sweeper

1 x Tinned tomatoes (buy the chopped, not the whole, and buy a good brand because they're 'saucier'.)
1 x tbsp Tomato puree.
Minced garlic to taste - start with a heaped tsp (get one of those tubes of the garlic paste.)
200mls white wine
A shake of dried oregano or other mixed herbs

And it's pretty much, all in a pot, simmer it, drop raw meatballs in it and they'll cook. If there's not enough sauce, double the amounts. A white wine meatball sauce is a different animal to a red wine meatball sauce, and has a lot going for it.

Edited to add: tomato sauces can be very acidic. Long cooking can reduce that acidity, as can the addition of sugar - or honey, treacle, etc. If you use sweet white wine in the above as opposed to dry white wine, it can help too.

neuro-praxis

The absolute easiest meatball sauce ever is to buy a carton or jar or two of tomato passata. Pour into a large saucepan and add salt, pepper, dried green herbs, sugar and garlic powder to taste. Takes 2 minutes, if even that.

Heat through. Add your fried/baked meatballs to this sauce, or as Olala said, pop them in and let them cook inside the sauce with the lid on the pot.

nesbitt

I tried a Catherine Fulvio recipe recently. Did the whole deal, made the meat balls, made the sauce and the end result was dry meatballs and insipid sauce.

I like the sound of these recipes on here so far, thanks all. I will make the sauce, get meatballs in butchers. Quick dinner!:)

The Hill Billy

Hi there all. Please respect each others' posts. Give your own opinions & recipes without squabbling & smart comments.

Thanks,

HB

MandyM

I throw these ingredients together as my basic tomato sauce base, then add other things to it as I wish, but it's great for meatballs.

2-3 Cloves Garlic, crushed
Bunch Fresh Basil (must be fresh!) roughly chopped
2 tins Chopped Tomato (make sure it doesn't have added herbs)
1 tsp Sugar
Generous glug red wine (optional)
Generous Squirt Tomato Paste (about 2 Tbsp)
Dash Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper to taste

- Firstly, you really should brown your meatballs, no colour, no flavour. You don't want to cook them through, just get them browned so that the flavour comes out. So heat some olive oil in a hot pan, fry the meatballs till brown, then set aside.

- In a large pot, heat some olive oil and lightly fry the crushed garlic for 1min (this makes the garlic sweet rather than just plain stinging garlic)
- Add your tinned tomato, tomato paste, chopped basil, sugar, red wine, salt & pepper to taste
- Carefully put the meatballs into the tomato sauce and simmer with lid on for 40 - 45 mins (carefully stir the meatballs around about halfway through cooking)
- Serve with more fresh chopped basil and fresh grated parmesan cheese.

Other varieties, add
- Dried chilli flakes
- Chopped red pepper or mushrooms when about 10mins left of cooking
- Chopped onion sautéd with the garlic at the start