;)
You can substitute just beef, dried oregano, pre-grated cheese food, prepared bread crumbs and/or sauce out of a jar, but it won't be the same result. You do need a food processor to get a soft, cake-like consistancy for your meatballs. You can do it manually, but its difficult to get the vegetables and bread crumb cut really small. I usually have a quart or two of sauce I pre-made in the freezer. Its very simple to make, it just takes non-active simmering time, but I guarantee it is not only cheaper than anything out of a jar, you will never get this taste out of a jar. This recipe will make about 3 dozen meatballs, so I use about 12-15 for 4 servings, and freeze the rest in a gallon freezer bag for future use.
Meatballs:
3 lbs ground beef and pork (ideally, ground together)
1 large sweet onion
2 medium sized carrots
4 stalks celery
6 cloves garlic
2 tbs fresh oregano
1/4 pound reggiana parmegeana cheese
3 jumbo eggs (4 if another size)
3 cups fresh breadcrumbs
2 Tbs olive oil
Salt & Pepper
1 quart marinara sauce
- If you run these ingredients through the food processor in this order, you won't have to wash it bowl in between steps.
- If you have not already made the bread crumbs, take a loaf of good quality country style bread, cut it into chunks and run it through a food processor until you have very fine bread crumbs. Freeze what you don't use for this recipe. Put the bread crumbs into a large bowl.
- Cut the cheese into 1 inch pieces, and run through the food processor until you have finely grated cheese. Add to the bread crumbs.
- Scrub or peel the carrots, take the ends off, cut into 1 inch pieces and put into the food processor bowl with the knife.
- Add the peeled garlic cloves
- Cut the onion into large chunks and add to the bowl
- Cut the celery into large chunks and add to the bowl
- Add the fresh oregano leaves to the bowl
- Run the knife until you have very small, very minced vegetables.