Contrary to what people may tell you there is no such thing as an authentic Italian Pasta Sauce recipe. Every family makes their sauce differently, and the tastes vary wildly across Italy. The version shown here has meatballs rolled very tiny so they can go between the layers of a lasagna or extra meaty goodness. What matters is that the sauce is served around a table of your friends and family to enjoy together!
Recipe updated March 2018 to include directions for pressure cooker method. See the instructional video on notnonnaskitchen Instragram
Print version is available here
Servings
18-22 Meatballs & 3.5 quarts of sauce
Ingredients
For the Sauce
1 lb Spicy Italian Pork Sausage, casing removed
2 large carrots, diced
2 stalks of celery, diced in small pieces
1 large yellow onion, diced in small pieces**
2-6 cloves of garlic, crushed
4 jars of strained tomatoes
2 cups of water (variable, see directions)
Salt and Pepper to Taste
For the Meatballs
2 lbs 75/25 ground beef
1 lb lean ground veal
1 cup finely grated Parmesan
1 cup Italian Style Breadcrumbs
4 cloves garlic, crushed and finely minced
1/4 Parsley, finely chopped
2-3 eggs (see directions)
3 tbsp salt
1 tbsp ground black pepper
Notes on the ingredients:
I buy my sausages at Sprouts as I like their spice balance. Instead of chopping your own carrots, celery and onion you can also buy a container of pre-diced mirepoix from the grocery store. Strained tomatoes are not the canned whole tomatoes, it is sometimes referred to as tomato passata, and Serious Eats has a whole article about it. They usually come in a glass jar, I use Strianese brand.
Equipment
A 6 quart enameled pot or heavy based pot OR
An 8 quart pressure cooker
Directions
Sauce
Heat the pot on medium high or use your pressure cooker on sauté. When hot, add the sausage and cook, splitting the sausage into small pieces with your spoon, until slightly browned, spooning out excess fat if necessary.
Add the carrots to the pot and cook for 2-3 minutes. Then add the onions and celery to the pot to break down and sweat, stirring constantly for ~5-7 minutes until all vegetables have started to show some softening. Add the garlic, cook ~2 minutes longer.
Once the veggies are done sautéing, add the 4 jars of strained tomatoes, plus 2 cups of water OR rinse out each jar with a bit of water to get all the last bits of tomato-y goodness from the jar, and pour it out into the pot.
When using the instant pot: Adding the water is very important to prevent burning during the pressure cook cycle. I prefer to add water until the "max" line.
Stovetop: Reduce the heat to get the sauce to a simmer, and simmer for 2.5 hours on the stovetop (I recommend using a splatter guard) before adding the meatballs.
Pressure Cooker: Cook on high pressure for 1 hour.
Once the simmer period is complete, stir in the fresh basil leaves (before you start adding the meatballs)
Meatballs
While the sauce is cooking, in a large bowl (or the bowl of your stand mixer) combine the ground beef, ground veal, parmesean, bread crumbs, parsley and 2 eggs. Either mush together with your hands or with the paddle of your stand mixer on low until combined and ingredients are equally distributed throughout. If the mixture isn’t cohesive, add another egg and combine fully. Set aside until your sauce is done simmering/pressure cooking.
Grab a half hand full of the meat mixture and roll into a ball, I like my meatballs about 2.5” in diameter, but you can choose your own adventure here. Add them directly into the simmering sauce. Do this until all the meat mixture has been rolled into meatballs.
Once all the meatballs have been added, simmer the sauce with meatballs for 30-45 minutes. The sauce is complete once the meatballs when they are cooked through, or a thermometer registers to 165 Fahrenheit in the meatball's center.
Serve with cooked pasta, incorporate in a lasagna, pasta bake, or just straight up dip toasted ciabatta in the pot and don’t turn back. Enjoy!
Freezing Portions
Since this recipe makes such large batch, I freeze the leftover sauce in 1 quart freezer bags, remove all the air before sealing, and lay flat to freeze. For freezing sauce with meatballs, I put 4 meatballs per freezer quart bag along with 2 cups of sauce, which is a serving for 2 of pasta and meatballs when you defrost it.
Variations
Serve with crispy pancetta on top
Add stewing pork or beef, make sure you brown it before adding to sauce
Roll some of the meatball mixture into tiny meatballs and leave them in the sauce. I like to use this “sauce with the tiny meatballs” between the layers of a lasagna, it’s a favorite in my family