Italian Spaghetti Sauce with Meatballs

I found the meatballs to be dry and hard, and the sauce to be bland. I did not enjoy this recipe and won’t make it again!

Loved this recipe! I did brown my meatballs a little then finished cooking them in the sauce. I did add 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes.

The absolute best spaghetti and meatballs I have ever had.

My family and I love this recipe. Was nervous about putting raw meatballs in the sauce, but it turned out fantastic!

May use a bit less sugar next time but it was fantastic! I added Italian seasoning instead of just basil and it was flavorful and perfect. I also did make a triple batch and used fresh tomatoes instead. We are Dairy free so vegan Parm worked wonderfully also. Thanks!

I prefer meat sauce to meatballs so I just cooked all of the meatball ingred. (except bread crumbs and egg) together then added at the end when the sauce was cooked. Really good and will be making this again! Thank you!

Best spaghetti sauce and meatballs I have ever made. I will never make it another way again!

Made this tonight a. It was great my husband loved it an my granddaughter. An she is picky an she ate the whole plate. Thanks

I was so disappointed. It had no italian flavor. It was very bland. I added oregano, thyme & rosemary & it was delicious. The meatballs were bland also.

This is a good jumping off point. I added 1/2 cup each of green and red pepper, worshestire sauce and mushrooms.

My family told me it was better than Grandma’s recipe! That says a lot!

My family loved it ❤️, I’ll definitely make it again. Thanks

I think olives would enhance this sauce!

Love it

Really great. As others suggested, I cut back on the sugar a bit, and I also browned the meatballs. I doubled the recipe and froze half.

I’ve been making this for awhile now and have dialed it into my liking. First, I added a couple grated up carrots from the food processor as well as diced mushrooms to make the sauce thicker and give it a garden fresh twist. I sauté the veggies with the olive oil before adding anything. I use 2 28oz cans of crushed tomatoes instead of whole pealed, the sauce gets done much quicker this way. I also stir in a 1/4 cup dry red wine when I add the sugar. I sub the meatball version of this recipe for Chef John’s on this website and the dried basil for Italian seasoning. I garnish it with fresh chopped Italian parsley and fresh grated Parmesan cheese. This is a 10/10 every time, the kids ask for it once at least once a week and I couple it with homemade garlic bread. Thanks!

1) I think it would make more sense to start with the sauce and then prepare the meatballs, since they aren’t added until the last 30 minutes. That reduces the start-to-finish time, since the sauce needs to simmer for 90 minutes at the beginning. 2) I followed the meatball recipe almost exactly, except that I added a little bit of salt based on some of the other reviews and soaked the bread crumbs in a half cup of milk (I did a 1.5× recipe). I also used 80/20 ground beef, which isn’t really “lean”, I suppose, so I baked them for a bit first before adding them to the sauce in order to let some of the fat drain out and to crisp up the outside. My family found the meatballs to be lacking in flavor: quite frankly, they needed a lot more salt than the quarter teaspoon or so that I added. I would probably increase the salt to 1 tsp were I to make the recipe again. I also think the amount of garlic powder could be increased, and I would personally swap the parsley for a more flavorful herb or herb blend in the future. 3) The sauce, on the other hand, was very flavorful and delicious! I did have to make some substitutions regarding the type of tomato, given what I had on hand, but that only affects texture, not taste. I would definitely make the sauce again, and hopefully I will remember to buy whole canned tomatoes so that I can try it as written.

Takes a little time but so worth it. Simple instructions and excellent results first try. This is “serve to company” good!

Rating just the meatballs. I Used meatloaf/meatball mix, substituted dry breadcrumbs for fresh, Italian seasoning for parsley. Meatballs need salt, but otherwise good. This is definitely one to build off of. I made 16 small meatballs and baked 17 minutes at 350.

Didn’t have tomato paste or dried basil. Still made it with everything else, used all the measurements according to the recipe except for the salt, ended up adding some salt to the meatball mixture and a bit at the end but that’s purely preference. It was so good I was threatened with bodily harm if I don’t save and remake this recipe at least once a month. I was worried about the meatballs not cooking all the way through, but I had absolutely no issues with that.

This is fantastic spaghetti sauce! This has a fresh bright flavor and it wakes up your mouth. Sooo delicious. This is not like any other sauce I have ever eaten. I found this over 15 years ago and then as life got busier with growing teenagers, I started using jar or package sauce for convenience. Now with today’s prices and my favorite jar sauce being $9 a jar, I am making my own again. Easy and fast to put together, then most of the work is waiting for the time to elapse so you can eat. I did use canned Italian San Marzano tomatoes. I inadvertently used 1 can of tomato puree, because I thought they were both whole tomatoes until I opened them. That ended up being a happy accident and I am adjusting my copy of the recipe to reflect that change. I skipped the tomato paste as a result. I took an immersion blender to the whole tomatoes and crushed them up some before starting the sauce. I did use a little more garlic because 2 extra cloves popped out when I was pulling off the ones called for. They were little, so I went with it. I used a whole slice of bread and didn’t measure to see if it was a cup or not. It worked. My only addition was about 1/2 tsp. of oregano to the sauce which was insignificant considering the volume of the pot. I baked the meatballs in the oven until they were browned, which was probably 20 minutes at 350. I just eyeballed them for color, and then plopped them into the sauce and let them simmer right along for the 90 minutes. I put everything right at the start after sauteeing the onion and garlic, and didn’t space it out as directed because I couldn’t be bothered. I used my caldero pot since I wanted plenty of space for all this to fit and it was perfect. My husband loved the meatballs so much he mentioned it. He doesn’t usually comment on food, he just eats, so if he actually makes a comment, I know it’s special. This was fabulous and I prefer it over the jar sauce aaaaand it gave me so much more. I like knowing what is in my food and being able to control the sugars and salts as well as other ingredients. Thanks for sharing Jeremy, this is going to be my go-to spaghetti and meatballs from now on!