I have never cooked with meatballs

[Alpo 4,971]

My spaghetti sauce takes about 5 hours. I put in all the ingredients and it simmers, and the flavors meld.

 

If I were to put meatballs in my sauce at the beginning, after simmering for 5 hours, would the meatballs have picked up the flavors of the sauce, or would they have fallen apart and be just some more ground beef?

 

[Marshal Hangtree 1,605]

Try it and see.

[Blackwater 53393 4,261]

If your meatballs are well made, they will absorb the other flavors and be VERY tender when you serve them.  If not, you'll have a more chunky meat sauce to serve.  

 

YOU CAN'T LOSE!!

[Shotgun Willie Nelson 635]

For some reason this one reminds me of an old story of mine..

I once got on an elevator at work and two women were talking about Alpo, not the cowboy, but the dog food.

One said that her cat likes and eats Alpo.

The door opened on my floor and I walked off the elevator and as the door was shutting I exclaimed, "It's good on spaghetti, too!"

[Utah Bob #35998 12,428]

The meatballs don’t need that much time in the sauce. Brown them first. Add them the last half hour.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 5,883]

UB knowz

[Rye Miles #13621 5,059]

43 minutes ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

The meatballs don’t need that much time in the sauce. Brown them first. Add them the last half hour.

That’s the way my mom did it, she was 100% Italian!!

[Alpo 4,971]

I was planning on using (oh the horrors) store-bought.

 

Says they're already cooked, so just dump 'em in the last half hour will be good?

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 5,883]

Or toss them in the trash.

[Charlie Harley, #14153 1,958]

26 minutes ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

Or toss them in the trash.

What marshal said. 

 

Meatballs are are too easy to have to resort to store bought, and yours will taste so much better. 

[Cypress Sun 2,136]

50 minutes ago, Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 said:

Or toss them in the trash.

 

Or keep them frozen and use them in a wrist rocket.

[Utah Bob #35998 12,428]

56 minutes ago, Alpo said:

I was planning on using (oh the horrors) store-bought.

 

Says they're already cooked, so just dump 'em in the last half hour will be good?

Actually I have used thee in the past and they are really pretty good.

[Pat Riot, SASS #13748 16,545]

41 minutes ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

Actually I have used thee in the past and they are really pretty good.

I can vouch for that. These are good meatballs. 

[Raylan 2,833]

Mom was Italian and made her own ravioli from scratch as well as sauce and meatballs. She would brown the meatballs and then cook them at a low simmer with the sauce for hours in a cast iron skillet. She made the best meatballs I've ever eaten - most meatballs at restaurants or commercially sold meatballs all need to be thrown in the trash. 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 5,883]

Surprised that this thread has gone so long without

 

 

 

[Lawdog Dago Dom 1,331]

A good blend for meatballs is one-third ground beef (80/20), one third ground pork, and one third ground veal. Great texture and flavor.

 

Missin you now Nonna!

 

Mangia!

 

[Rye Miles #13621 5,059]

3 hours ago, Alpo said:

I was planning on using (oh the horrors) store-bought.

 

Says they're already cooked, so just dump 'em in the last half hour will be good?

I absolutely hate to cook and I’ve used these before and some are pretty good, try and get some Italian brands, I forget the names but they’re decent!

[Lawdog Dago Dom 1,331]

11 minutes ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

I absolutely hate to cook and I’ve used these before and some are pretty good, try and get some Italian brands, I forget the names but they’re decent!

 

Rye, if I see your name on a "Who's Coming" list to a match we are going to, I will make some for you. That will keep you out of the freezer aisle. Plus you can always make a bunch and freeze them yourself, and you will know exactly what is in them!

 

There was a family gathering when I was very young at a relatives house (you never seem to run out of cousins in Italian families). Somebody opened a cupboard and there was a jar of the famous "Ragu" spaghetti sauce. Nonna cried. Took it personal. If you wanted sauce, ask her. She would love to make it for you. Another infamia was Chef Boyardee Beefaroni. Then Spaghetti-O's. Trying times indeed for Italian grandmothers. (back in the day, infamia meant a loss of Roman citizenship. Today it has evolved into a synonym for "shame on you.")

 

Give it a shot. Make some sauce or meat balls. Freeze what you don't use. Keep it simple with the ingredients. Remember, many of these dishes were "peasant" dishes way back then. You used what you had. Once you get the hang of  meat balls and sauce ("gravy" on the east coast), we can talk about making pasta from scratch.

 

One hint. Adding red wine to a tomato based sauce makes it sweeter (and a good excuse to have some wine while you cook). There are certain sugars in tomatoes that only dissolve in alcohol.

 

Buona fortuna!

[BLACKFOOT SASS #11947 394]

4 hours ago, Alpo said:

I was planning on using (oh the horrors) store-bought.

 

Says they're already cooked, so just dump 'em in the last half hour will be good?

You can boil those in kerosene for 5 hours and they won't fall apart!

Blackfoot

[BLACKFOOT SASS #11947 394]

If you have never cooked with meatballs you have never met some of my friends!

Blackfoot

[Utah Bob #35998 12,428]

Don’t get me wrong. I can cook a pretty tasty meatball. I am not advocating frozen over scratch built. But I feel they are a perfectly viable alternative when time or lack of experience is a problem. If you haven’t tasted the Cooked Perfect brand give them a try sometime. You have nothing to lose.

[Abilene Slim SASS 81783 1,889]

I would think that an already cooked meatball would get kind of rubbery after hours of extra cooking in liquid. 

[J-BAR #18287 4,589]

Hasn’t anyone heard of Italian sausage?

 

[Rye Miles #13621 5,059]

11 hours ago, Lawdog Dago Dom said:

 

Rye, if I see your name on a "Who's Coming" list to a match we are going to, I will make some for you. That will keep you out of the freezer aisle. Plus you can always make a bunch and freeze them yourself, and you will know exactly what is in them!

 

There was a family gathering when I was very young at a relatives house (you never seem to run out of cousins in Italian families). Somebody opened a cupboard and there was a jar of the famous "Ragu" spaghetti sauce. Nonna cried. Took it personal. If you wanted sauce, ask her. She would love to make it for you. Another infamia was Chef Boyardee Beefaroni. Then Spaghetti-O's. Trying times indeed for Italian grandmothers. (back in the day, infamia meant a loss of Roman citizenship. Today it has evolved into a synonym for "shame on you.")

 

Give it a shot. Make some sauce or meat balls. Freeze what you don't use. Keep it simple with the ingredients. Remember, many of these dishes were "peasant" dishes way back then. You used what you had. Once you get the hang of  meat balls and sauce ("gravy" on the east coast), we can talk about making pasta from scratch.

 

One hint. Adding red wine to a tomato based sauce makes it sweeter (and a good excuse to have some wine while you cook). There are certain sugars in tomatoes that only dissolve in alcohol.

 

Buona fortuna!

Grazie!!

[Pat Riot, SASS #13748 16,545]

Why am I hungry...I just ate and I am hungry. 

[Alpo 4,971]

13 hours ago, Abilene Slim SASS 81783 said:

I would think that an already cooked meatball would get kind of rubbery after hours of extra cooking in liquid. 

I brown the hamburger before it goes in, which means it is already cooked. It's never gotten rubbery.

 

My chili, which I cook in the crock pot for six or more hours, uses my canned chuck.

 

It is completely cooked in the jar, but does not get rubbery.

 

Based on these experiences, I doubt meatballs would.

[Noz 1,615]

On 10/21/2019 at 2:44 PM, Alpo said:

I was planning on using (oh the horrors) store-bought.

 

Says they're already cooked, so just dump 'em in the last half hour will be good?

I hate to admit it in this erudite assembly but they ain't bad at all.

[Alpo 4,971]

I just had a vision.

 

Get you a six inch hoagie roll and split it about ⅔, maybe ¾ through. Warm up some sketti sauce. Put about five meatballs on a plate and nuke 'em for a minute or so. Butter the inside of the roll with garlic butter. Stick the meatballs in the roll and cover with moozarella cheese. Stick in the toaster oven for a few minutes, to melt the cheese down on the meatballs. Pour some of the heated sauce on top of the cheese, sprinkle with grated Parmesan, and back in the still-hot toaster oven for about a minute.

 

I'm hungry.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 5,883]

19 hours ago, J-BAR #18287 said:

Hasn’t anyone heard of Italian sausage?

 

Yeah but it is so random I can’t depend on it

[Capt. James H. Callahan 1,014]

I actually like frozen meatballs. Usually. Some times they're fulla bone chips. Or bullet fragments. My wife doesn't like them so I rarely buy them. Just easier that way.

JHC

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984 5,883]

Seriously if you have never cooked with meatballs, you have never cooked.