Your family and friends will use their garlic bread to clean their plates after eating this dish!
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 50 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 20 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
| Yield: | 6 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 ½ teaspoons olive oil
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 (16 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
- 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
- ½ cup red wine
- 3 tablespoons Italian seasoning
- 2 tablespoons white sugar
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons garlic salt
- salt and ground black pepper to taste
- ½ pound lean ground beef
- 1 egg, beaten
- ¼ cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
- ¼ cup grated mozzarella cheese
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- 1 (16 ounce) package spaghetti
- ¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat; cook and stir onion and garlic until onion is tender and translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, red wine, Italian seasoning, sugar, garlic powder, and garlic salt. Season with salt and black pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and continue simmering while preparing meatballs.
- Mix ground beef, egg, bread crumbs, mozzarella cheese, and parsley in a large bowl. Roll walnut-size meatballs and place in the simmering sauce, making sure sauce covers entire meatball. Increase heat to medium and simmering until meatballs are no longer pink in the center, about 40 minutes, turning meatballs once about halfway through.
- Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook spaghetti in the boiling water, stirring occasionally until cooked through but firm to the bite, 8 to 10 minutes. Drain.
- Serve meatballs and sauce over spaghetti with a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 519 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 80 g |
| Cholesterol | 63 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 7 g |
| Protein | 25 g |
| Saturated Fat | 4 g |
| Sodium | 970 mg |
| Sugars | 11 g |
| Fat | 10 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I was hoping to enjoy this but it was way too sweet. Tasted like bottled tomato sauce. I like my tomato sauce on the smoother side and actually tasting like tomatoes! Family wasn’t impressed.
I didn’t use any wine, and used sauce, but overall, the dish was delicious! The meatballs were the best I’ve ever had!
The sauce was good but the meatballs were bland. Next time I’ll season the meat mixture.
This recipe is fantastic!! I loved the flavor. I skipped the salt since the garlic salt and the tomatoes added enough flavor for me. My son loved it. This will be my go to recipe!
I agree with the title. It’s amazing! I was a little leery of not cooking the meatballs before putting them in the sauce, but I simmered them in the sauce with the lid on, kept flipping them, and they were actually done in 30 minutes. This goes under my favorites!
We added red pepper flakes a few more herbs and garlic. Very good. We cooked it a little longer (bc we were waiting on the garlic bread) and had to add a little broth to thin it out a bit. Great base and the meat balls were amaze-balls.
I hate to be Debbie Downer, but neither my hubs or I liked this at all (sorry!). For one, this sauce is WAAAAY too thick! My grocer doesn’t sell 16 oz. cans of crushed tomatoes but it’s a good thing they don’t. Even after adding an entire 28 oz. can of tomatoes, my sauce was super thick, almost a tomato paste consistency. Another problem I had with this recipe was partly my fault. Setting my burner to medium burned my meatballs! Admittedly, I should have stirred every now and then, especially since I simmered everything in my Dutch oven (which isn’t non-stick). Everyone’s stovetop is different and apparently mine runs hot. I never thought I’d say this, but Jeremy’s Italian Spaghetti Sauce & Meatballs blows this out of the water. Maybe this will float your boat, but it didn’t do anything for us. Thanks anyways, Megan.
I’ve been searching for a good & easy sauce recipe and finally found it. Delish..thanks!
I don’t know if using my “old fresh” tomatoes in place of the canned crushed ones had much to do with the flavor, but the red wine really adds to the sauce. (I used a Red German Dornfelder wine & cut back on the sugar.) I didn’t follow the recipe exactly in “measurements”, but used the listed ingredients to season the sauce & meatballs. I like the mozzarella cheese in the meatballs & did brown them in the oven before adding to the sauce. (I used a fine shredded mozz.) Next time, I want to try adding the raw meatballs to the sauce but will need a lower fat ground beef to be comfortable with that idea. Good recipe to adjust seasonings to your liking.
This sauce has a lot to be desired. Too much spices, and it was very acidy. I added some hot pepper flakes and more sugar then it tasted better. The meatballs were O.K. I would not make this again.
There must be something missing or something wrong with the proportions. I had to add water to thin down the sauce and the spices were overwhelming.
I tried it, I love it. However, I replaced the mozzarella in the meatballs with Parmesan, the parsley with basil. Meatballs should be pan-seared until golden brown before being put in the sauce, so that’s what I did. I finished them in the sauce which was simmering on low heat.
I really liked this recipe (I’m a Megan too!). I made both the meatballs and tomato sauce and stuck to the recipe pretty dead-on. BUT I struggled with the ingredient portions. My grocery store sells ground beef in 1lb portions, so I went ahead and doubled the meatballs (froze half for later). Also, I could only find crushed tomatoes in 28oz cans – but that ended up being a blessing because if you like plenty of sauce on your pasta, this recipe does not serve anywhere near 6. Next time I’ll use the full 28oz and adjust the seasonings/wine accordingly to get more sauce. The meatballs portion of the recipe worked perfectly though – I was able to follow it to a T and had perfect meatballs!
Megan is right! It is amazing! I put about a 1/4c of shredded parm in the meat balls… oh and they were made with gr beef, gr italian sausage and gr lamb, as well. This made them tender and so yummy! Had enough leftover to keep it for the weekend and something to munch on! Way to go Megan!
I did not have mozzarella cheese so I used mexican cheese mixture and some Monterey Jack. I also added about a tsp of Basil in the meatball mixture. Cook meatballs in oven at 400 degrees for 10 min. Turn once after 5 min. Then add to the sauce.
Great recipe, although I didn’t have wine on hand, just added water and tasted great. I’m anxious to make it with the red wine. Looking forward to making it again soon!
100 stars!!!
I always buy a large pkg of pork neck bones. I roast them at 350 degrees for 1 hour & freeze them. When I’m making sauce I wrap a few in cheesecloth & add to the sauce. This makes the sauce even better.
This is a very good meatball recipe I’ve made, this recipe has become my signature dish and I don’t know how many times I have made this. I would like to recommend! My husband loves it too.
This was the most AMAZING sauce and I make a pretty darn good sauce myself! The wine was the PERFECT complement to the sauce. It made the taste very authentic to Italian. Meatballs were a huge hit too. Guess I will be making this sauce from now on and not mine – 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
I think there is an error in the seasoning and wine amounts. Sauce was Very strong. Meatballs saved this recipe.