Spaghetti & Meatballs
Tender beef meatballs simmered in tomato sauce over spaghetti — Sunday's greatest hit, weeknight pace.
Ingredients
- 500 g Ground beef
- 350 g Spaghetti
- 800 g Canned tomatoes
- 50 g Breadcrumbs
- 1 Egg
- 3 cloves Garlic
- 2 tbsp Extra-virgin olive oil
- 50 ml Milk
- 1½ tsp Salt
- 50 g Hard cheese (optional)
- 1 tsp Dried oregano (optional)
Method
- Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil for the spaghetti.
- Soak the breadcrumbs in the milk in a large bowl until softened.
- Mince the garlic and grate the hard cheese.
- Mix the beef, egg, half the grated cheese, half the garlic, and the salt into the soaked breadcrumbs.
- Roll the mixture into golf-ball meatballs with wet hands.
- Brown the meatballs in the olive oil in a wide skillet over medium-high heat on two sides; they finish cooking in the sauce.
- Add the remaining garlic, the tomatoes, and the oregano to the skillet around the meatballs.
- Simmer the meatballs gently in the sauce until cooked through, about 15 minutes.
- While the meatballs simmer, cook the spaghetti in the salted water one minute shy of al dente, about 10 minutes.
- Reserve a mugful of pasta water, then drain.
- Toss the spaghetti with the sauce, loosening with a splash of the reserved pasta water if needed, crown with the meatballs, and snow the remaining cheese over the top. Serve.
Tap “Start cooking” for live timers that flag what to get ahead on while something simmers.
About Spaghetti & Meatballs
Spaghetti and meatballs is an Italian-American creation rather than an Italian one, born in the immigrant kitchens of the early twentieth-century United States where cheap, plentiful meat let cooks build the abundant Sunday plate their old-country relatives rarely could. Tender beef meatballs, lightened with a panade of breadcrumbs soaked in milk so they stay soft, are browned and then simmered in a garlicky tomato sauce until they finish cooking through and lend the sauce their flavour. It has become one of the defining comfort dishes of American home cooking.
The pleasure is in the contrasts: yielding, savoury meatballs bound with egg and cheese against a bright, oregano-scented tomato sauce and a tangle of spaghetti. Browning the meatballs on two sides first builds a deep crust, and finishing them gently in the sauce keeps them moist while enriching the tomatoes. Sized to feed five, it is built for the family table, the kind of meal you make a big pot of on a weekend, though it comes together fast enough for a weeknight. Serve it with extra grated cheese, torn bread, and a green salad, and you have the archetypal Sunday supper at everyday pace.
Spaghetti & Meatballs: frequently asked questions
How many calories are in Spaghetti & Meatballs?
A serving has about 689 calories — 36.7g protein, 73.2g carbs, 26.6g fat, 6.1g fiber. Figures are estimated from the ingredient amounts and will shift with your portions and brands.
Is it high in protein?
Each serving has about 36.7g of protein, roughly 21% of its calories.
Is Spaghetti & Meatballs gluten-free?
As written, no — it contains Spaghetti, Breadcrumbs. You'd need a certified gluten-free swap for those ingredients to make it gluten-free.
Is Spaghetti & Meatballs dairy-free?
Not as written — it uses Milk. Swapping it for a plant-based alternative makes it dairy-free.
How long does Spaghetti & Meatballs take to make?
About 36 minutes start to finish, but only around 23 of those are hands-on — the rest is largely unattended cooking time you can step away from. In the Homecooked app the timers and parallel steps are sequenced for you so the hands-on part feels even shorter.
Do I need every ingredient to make Spaghetti & Meatballs?
The core ingredients are essential, but you can leave out hard cheese, dried oregano — they're optional and mainly there for extra flavor or finish.
How many servings does Spaghetti & Meatballs make?
This recipe makes 5 servings. In the app you can scale it up or down and the ingredient amounts adjust automatically.