Lou’s Spaghetti and Meatballs

Make Meatballs:

1 lb. ground beef and 1/2 lb. of ground pork

1/2 of onion chopped (I use about a 4th)

salt, pepper, allspice, cinnamon, garlic powder, parsley

grated parmesan or asiago cheese

1 egg

Mix together with hands and rub hands with Mazola Oil. (the only oil that Dad thought existed.) Fry them up and set on the side. Now, this is where Dad would leave all the grease in the pan. He usually made his meatballs small. Sometimes Dad would use pork chops as a base and cook them in the sauce until they almost fell off the bone. I usually use Italian sausage, although I fry it up first and get the grease out, then stick the sausage in the sauce for flavor. Don’t forget those chopped chicken gizzards and livers that he would put in the sauce. As gross as it was, it made for good flavor. Sometimes he just stuck them in whole and then fished them out when the sauce was done.

Sauce:

Chop up a half of onion again and add either chopped garlic or whole (3 or 4 cloves) and pick it out later. He added a little more Mazola oil at this stage too. Fry them up but don’t let them turn brown. (If you use pork chops you can brown them at this point too, but do that first before you add the garlic and onion).

2 big cans of tomato puree or tomato sauce are added. Sometime he would use the whole tomatoes and blend them before putting them in the pan. (I don’t know exactly what size cans) put in a cup of water, 4 cloves, allspice, cinnamon, 2 bay leaves, fresh parsley and oregano (small amount of oregano) Dad would just tell me a dash of this or that. He never gave me the exact amount of spices.

Simmer for 1 hour and watch for thickness, keep stirring.

After 1 hour add a small can of tomato paste,

2 cups of water and grated parmesan cheese (stir).

Simmer for a 1/2 hour and then add the meatballs again.

Simmer it until the sauce gets thick 30 to 45 minutes.

Make sure you keep the cover on the pan throughout, except for the last half hour; take the cover off so any extra liquid gets boiled off.

Pick out all the gross things before serving.

I like to add bread crumbs to my meatballs, I don’t think he did. It probably doesn’t matter.