Serves a Crowd

Nana's Sauce and Meatballs

by:
February  9, 2010
4
4 Ratings
Nana's Sauce and Meatballs
  • Serves 6-8
Author Notes

This is the sauce my great, great grandmother used to make every Sunday at our house. It's the cook-for-hours sauce that is made even better with pork neck bones. And her meatballs were awesome. Nana didn't speak much English, but we always knew what "mangia, mangia" meant and she definitely made her love tangible with her cooking....one of my favorite GirlCooks. —GirlCook

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • Nana's Sauce
  • 1 can Tomato Puree
  • 1 can Crushed Tomatoes
  • 1 Small Can Tomato Paste
  • 1 1/2 can Water from larger tomato cans
  • 1 tablespoon Dried Oregano (dried on-th-stalk oregano is awesome here if you have it)
  • 1 tablespoon Dried Basil
  • 1 tablespoon Dried Parsley
  • 1 dash Salt
  • 1 dash Hot Pepper Flakes
  • 1 dash Baking Soda
  • 1/2 cup Parmigiano Cheese
  • 1/2 cup Sugar
  • Nana's Meatballs
  • 5 slices Bread
  • 1/2 cup Whole Milk
  • 1 pound Ground Beef ( even make these with ground turkey)
  • 2 Eggs
  • 1/2 cup Parmigiano Cheese
  • 2 cloves Minced Garlic
  • 1/2 teaspoon Dried Oregano
  • Salt and Pepper to taste
Directions
  1. Nana's Sauce
  2. Put all ingredients in a large pot and simmer for 3 hours.
  1. Nana's Meatballs
  2. Soak the bread in the milk/add enough to make the bread wet and soggy/depending upon the bread, you may need more or less. Break the bread up in the liquid. You can use any kind of white bread, I often use wheat bread.
  3. Add all other ingredients and mix the ingredients (Nana used her hands) until well blended.
  4. Scoop the meat with an ice cream scoop and place all meatballs onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
  5. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes.
  6. Put the meatballs into the sauce, these can continue to cook for the last 45 minutes of the cooking if desired.
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