Ingredients :

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Marinara (makes 2 quarts sauce)
Olive oil 1/4 cup
Onion minced 2 ea
Pepper, green bell minced 1 ea
Garlic minced 6 cloves
Oregano dried 1 T
Tomato paste 1/4 cup
Red wine (opt.) 1 cup
Tomatoes chopped or crushed 2 28-oz cans
Basil fresh or dried 1/2 cup or 1 T
Sugar 1 T
Bay leaves 2 each
Salt & pepper to taste
Meatballs (makes 8 large or 16 small)
Onion-pepper-garlic mix from above see recipe 3/4 cup
Beef, ground 1 lb
Pork, ground 1 lb
Breadcrumbs 1/2 cup
Parsley minced 1/4 cup
Parmesan, Pecorino Romano or Asiago cheese grated 1/3 cup
Eggs beaten well 2-3 each
Salt 2 t
Pepper 2 t
Flour 1 cup
Olive oil 1/3 cup

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Method :

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Sauce :

1. Heat oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pot. Add minced onions, pepper and garlic. Sauté over medium heat for 5-8 minutes until mixture loses its rawness. Reserve about 3/4 cup of this mixture aside to use in meatballs.
2. Add oregano and tomato paste to mixture in pot and stir in well 1-2 minutes. Add red wine, stir in and simmer till almost all evaporated.
3. Add remaining sauce ingredients, stir well and simmer over low heat 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Meatballs :

1. While marinara is simmering, mix well all meatball ingredients except flour and olive oil in a large bowl.
2. Heat olive oil over medium-high heat in a skillet. Add a small bit of meatball mix to oil and cook through. Taste it and adjust seasoning as needed.
3. Form meat into balls. Roll each meatball in the flour and shake off excess. Brown meatballs in hot oil on all sides.
4. Add meatballs to marinara sauce during last 30 minutes of cooking. Simmer till cooked through.
5. Serve over spaghetti or in Italian rolls as a meatball sandwich.

Variations :

* Try using different types and proportions of ground meat. You can use ground turkey or ground veal. Or try removing fresh Italian sausages from their casings and mixing with ground beef. You just need 2 lbs of meat altogether.
* Adjust the amount of sugar you use to make the sauce more or less sweet.