Making Italian Meatballs with Tomatoes from My Garden

Hi guys, welcome to my mini urban garden in St Louis, Missouri, zone 7a.

Brrrr it's cold and I miss my summer garden! Luckily, I had a bunch of tomatoes leftover from my summer harvest for preservation and I froze a bunch of them. Now, to combat the winter blues, I want to use them to make a pasta sauce and then simmer italian meatballs in that rich, velvety sauce. Come with me and my cats to cook.

ingredients:

for the tomato sauce -
3 lbs tomatoes. If using fresh or frozen tomatoes, best to use san marzano or roma but large cherry tomatoes will work too.
optional: if not making sauce from scratch, you can 1 lb of tomato puree (I prefer Mutti brand Tomato Puree)
3 tbs olive oil
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp salt

for the meatballs -
1 lb ground beef (80/20)
2 eggs
6 tbs grana padano or parmigiano, grated
5 tbs milk
3 tbs breadcrumbs (I take leftover homemade sourdough bread and pulverize it in a food processor)
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt

instructions:

for the tomato sauce -
if using frozen tomatoes, defrost at room temperature or in fridge. when defrosted, skins will slide off easily. remove skins and the cores
frozen tomatoes will have a bit of water, don’t discard it b/c it’s flavorful and can be boiled off in the sauce later on
hand crush the tomatoes. you should have 3-4 cups of it at the end
in a dutch oven, heat up 3 tbs olive oil, being careful not to burn it
add 2 cloves of garlic to the oil, heat until golden
add the crushed tomatoes and bring to simmer on medium heat
simmer (don’t boil) for about 45 minutes. if there’s a lot of liquid from frozen tomatoes, you may need to simmer for longer.
add salt to taste, basil if in season
remove garlic and basil, use an immersion blender to puree the sauce

alternatively, if using tomato puree, add it to the pot with the garlic. Add 3 finger widths of water to the bottle to get all the remaining sauce out and add it to the pot. simmer with the garlic without letting it come to a boil. you will not need to simmer it for as long as if you used frozen tomatoes

for the meatballs -
in a large bowl, add ground beef, eggs, cheese, breadcrumbs, salt, nutmeg
mix by hand while adding milk, a little at a time, until a soft and homogenous texture achieved
form the meat balls by hand, slightly bigger than 1 inch in diameter. should make about 10 in total
to the pot with sauce, add the meatballs next to each other, being careful to not let them smush against each other
cook on low heat for 10 minutes with lid on
open lid and turn meatballs onto other side with a spoon and cook on low heat for another 5 minutes with lid on
take lid off and turn heat up to medium and cook 5 more minutes, allowing the sauce to thicken
you can eat them just like that or add grated parmigiano on top!

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