Sunday Meatballs and Rice

This is one of MaMa Ruby's recipes that has been passed down to me. It is yummy, cozy, and full of meatball goodness! The celery gives this dish a lighter flavor than regular spaghetti sauce. Now you can most certainly just take some meatballs from this cooked dish and throw them on a roll with some mozzarella cheese for a meatball sub for leftovers but this is how the dish starts.

We start with meatball mixture. I find myself making this kind of mixture a lot lately:)

My shaped meatballs, about 1-1/2 inches in diameter.

For veggies, start be slicing some onion. I cry every time!

Then some celery.

Add some olive oil to pot. I am using my trusty le-crueset.

Add to pot along with some salt and ground pepper.

Cook until translucent and add some chopped garlic.

I love garlic!

As MaMa says"Fry your tomato paste!"

We will be working with these today!

Lawry's spaghetti sauce mixture has everything in it.

Cheese, Paprika, Garlic, Oregano and other yummy seasonings!

It is one of my  Go-To shortcuts in the kitchen.

Add mixture to pot and stir.

I like to add meatballs in a circular pattern.

Everybody in the pool!

Spoon over sauce, and cover.

Almost done!

Whole tomatoes.

Hand crushed. Somebody's gotta do it!

Add to sauce!

Ingredients:

1 onion sliced

5 celery stalks 

12 oz can tomato paste

1 packet Lawry's extra rich and thick spaghetti seasoning mix

3 cups of water

28 oz can of whole tomatoes drained

2 pounds ground beef

1 egg

1/4 cup Italian bread crumbs

1/4 teaspoon chopped garlic

Salt

Ground pepper

First prepare the meatballs by placing ground beef in a large bowl and adding Italian bread crumbs, egg, a generous pinch of salt (maybe two) and a pinch of black pepper. Shape meatballs into 1 1/2 inch diameter meatballs and place on a baking sheet. With two ponds I was able to get 31 meatballs. Next wash hands and prepare veggies by slicing onion and chopping celery into 1 inch pieces. Add olive oil to pot and add onions and celery and cook until translucent, about 5-7 minutes stirring often, then add chopped garlic and stir, let cook for just about 20-30 seconds and then add the whole can of tomato paste and stir into veggies. 

Cook on medium heat. Continue to cook mixture for about 4-5 minutes stirring constantly. In a 2 cup measuring cup add 2 cups of water and packet of Lawrys spaghetti seasoning, and stir to combine. Add mixture to pot, stir Into tomato paste and combine well. It may be still a bit thick at this point so I added one more cup of water. Let this cook for about 5 minutes on medium-low heat and stir once more. Start adding meatballs. They are raw but they will cook nicely in sauce. Add meatballs in pot one by one and carefully as not to smash them or they may fall apart. 

Once the meatballs are added spoon over some sauce on them and place lid on. Stir every 5-7 minutes. After they have cooked half-way, about 15 minutes, add whole tomatoes that have been drained and crushed by hand. Mix until combined while still being gentle with meatballs. Add salt and pepper to season. Make sure to stir well and not let sauce stick to bottom of pot. Let cook about another 20-25 minutes, stirring every 6-7 minutes. Serve with rice or egg noodles.

This makes a lot of sauce, so you can definitely freeze half.