Polpette di Carne, or meatballs in tomatoe sauce Neapolitan style

I am Italian. Specifically my family is from Bari (Apulia, or Puglia region of Italy) Italy. My grandmother cooked by the eyeball method, so I find myself doing this when I cook Italian food. I don't really measure anything out. This makes posting a recipe difficult at times.

I had some ground buffalo beef in the fridge and wanted to try it in meatballs. I found a couple of recipes, but no single one really sounded good so I combined a couple and hoped for the best. They turned out great, and were seriously to die for. Will never use regular ground beef again. I think for this to truly be Neapolitan (Naples or Campagna region), I would have added white raisins and pine nuts to the meatballs and deep fried them. Alas, I had no raisins and I am allergic to nuts, so out they went. If you decide to add them, it would be 1/3 cup each. Also, deep frying was not on my radar for this night. I am not averse to it, but I wanted this to be a healthier meal.

The recipes I hacked up were a combination of 2 from (will have to try adding the spinach next time) internet and one from my Italian Regional Cooking by Ada Boni. GREAT, authentic recipes in this book. Get it!

Buffalo meatballs:

2lbs ground beef
1 cup Italian style bread crumbs
1 cup shaved Parmesan cheese (I love the shaved chunks better than grated. I used DiGiono, but you can shave your own which is even better)
1/4 tsp ground pepper
2 large eggs
2 Tbsp Italian herbs (or I might have used more...do this to taste...oregano, basil and parsley...you can also use fresh. Remember that the bread crumbs are seasoned too so don't overdo it. Although, I am not sure you can overdo italian seasonings)
1 tsp red pepper flakes

Mix this all up with your hands (yes, that is seriously the only way to really do this if you want authentic, italian meatballs ;*)) to incorporate everything together, but don't over work it. Form into balls. Mine were largish as you can see. Then roll them in some bread crumbs.



Spray a baking dish with cooking spray and bake your meatballs @ 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes.....or more (am so bad about the timer....mostly I eyeballed these, Grandma Balducci style) I turned mine and let them get brown just a bit. You will know when they are ready.

For the sauce I poured about 4-5 tbsp of olive oil in a large pan and sautéed 1/2 a chopped onion with 4-5 cloves garlic. When translucent I added a large can of italian San Marzano tomatoes and broke them up as they heated up. Add a can of tomatoe paste and 1-2 of the paste cans of water, depending on how thick you like your sauce.I think I added 1 can. Stir this up and add about 1 tsp sugar to break the acidity. Now grab some red wine and add a dash. And another. Okay, maybe one more. I used an organic Cabernet....maybe 1/4 cup or a bit less.. Basically just add to taste. Now add salt to taste. Cook for 40 minutes. You can add some herbs to this, but remember you are adding your meatballs, so use care.

Add the meatballs to the sauce, cover and simmer 20-30 minutes. I think mine went for 45 minutes or more because getting 4 kids to the dinner table is like herding cats....or worse. Am serious. Its okay though. The longer the meatballs are simmered, the more the flavor infuses the sauce.

I served this over Gluten free rice spaghetti (I use Mrs Leeper's). It was soooo good. It had a deep, rich taste that I attribute to the ground buffalo and red wine. I will make this recipe as my go to meatball in spaghetti sauce dish for sure. It was that yummy.