Neapolitan Beef Meatballs cooked in Tomato Sauce

I am sure you have tried a variety of meatballs in your life. Swedish meatballs, meatballs on pasta, fried meatballs, frozen meatballs etc…Have you ever tried these delicious Neapolitan style meatballs that have been cooked in a heavenly tomato sauce? A sauce that is made up of nothing more than onions, tomato puree and fresh basil…no canned Prego or Bertolli, just your own homemade sauce. These meatballs are different in the sense that they have a completely different texture to them. They don’t have a hard outer shell as most meatballs do. Instead, they are very soft and have a consistent texture due to being cooked in a sauce.

This is also a very traditional dish that originates from Naples. You can find this dish taking the centerpiece at the table of a long typical Neapolitan lunch. These are eaten strictly by themselves – never with pasta as it is done in most parts of the world. When the meatballs are finished, you are left with a delicious sauce. What can I do with the sauce? For starters, you can do what the Neapolitans call “scarpetta” which literally means shoe. Scarpetta is the act of taking a piece of bread and cleaning up the leftover sauce by soaking the bread in the sauce and then eating. For me, this is one of my favorite parts of eating meatballs. Otherwise you can use the sauce for another meal and make rigatoni with just the sauce and you have yourself a whole different meal.

Let us know what you think of this recipe!

Italian Meatballs cooked in Tomato Sauce

Recipe by Mamma Mia KitchenCourse: Main, Dinner, LunchCuisine: Italian, NeapolitanDifficulty: Medium

Servings

4

servings

Prep time

20

minutes

Cooking time

1

hour 

Calories

629

kcal

Total time

1

hour 

20

minutes

Neapolitan style beef meatballs cooked in tomato sauce with basil and onion.

Ingredients

• Meatballs

• 1 egg

• 1 cup of milk

• 1 stalk of parsley, chopped

• 2 cups of bread crumbs

• 1 clove of chopped garlic

• 1/2 cup of grated parmigiano reggiano

• 1/2 tablespoon of salt

• 1 teaspoon of pepper

• Meatball Sauce

• 1 8 oz bottle of tomato puree.

• 4-5 fresh basil leaves

• 1/2 onion

• 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil

• salt as needed

Directions

• Preparing the sauce
• Chop the onion into small pieces.
• In a large pot, add the olive oil and onions.
• Cook the onions on a medium-high heat until they begin to wilt.
• Add the tomato puree and lower the temperature to a simmer.
• Add the basil leaves and stir them in.
• Simmer the sauce for 10 minutes while stirring occasionally.
• Add a dash of salt to your liking.
• Preparing the meatballs.
• In a large bowl, add all the ingredients for the meatballs.
• Using your hands, mix the ingredients well, making sure the egg yolk breaks and mixes well.
• Once the mix reaches a consistent texture, begin to create medium sized balls about 2 inches big.
  
• After all the meatballs are created, slowly add them to the sauce following a circular pattern.
• After all the meatballs have been places in the sauce, grab the pot and shake it slightly to get the extra sauce to cover the meatballs.
• Cook the meatballs for an hour on a low heat, shaking the pot every 15 minutes as referenced in Step 5.
• After an hour has passed, add some more basil and Buon Appetito!

Notes

• For this recipe, I used Mutti Tomato Puree. Feel free to use any other type of tomato puree as long as it is strictly puree and has no other additives except salt.