Anonymous Recipe ♯ Grandma's Homemade Italian Sauce and Meatballs

This recipe has been handed down for generations and is always a hit. Both the sauce and meatballs freeze well. I freeze in dinner size portions so my husband and I don't have to use the bottled sauce!

Ingredients

• 48 ounces tomato paste
• 12 cups water
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon dried basil leaves
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 5 pork chops
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 (8 ounce) package mushrooms, sliced
• 1 pound ground beef
• ¼ pound ground pork
• ¼ pound ground veal
• 1 cup grated Romano cheese
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ⅓ teaspoon black pepper
• 1 ¼ cups dry bread crumbs
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 tablespoons dried parsley
• 2 eggs

Cooking Directions

1. In a large pot combine tomato paste, water, garlic, bay leaves, basil, and salt. Bring to a boil, turn heat down to low and simmer.
2. In a skillet, brown pork chops in olive oil then place in sauce mixture. Saute onions and mushrooms in same pan that you browned the pork chops. Add these to sauce as well. Simmer sauce a minimum of 8 hours, stirring occasionally.
3. To make the meatballs: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Combine beef, pork, veal, Romano cheese, salt, pepper, bread crumbs, garlic, parsley and eggs; mix well. Shape into balls. Place on a baking sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray.
4. Bake meatballs for 20 minutes. Place meatballs in a serving bowl when baking is complete and place in refrigerator. About 2 hours prior to dinnertime pop the meatballs into the sauce.

Nutrition Facts

• calories421.7
• carbohydrateContent38.5 g
• cholesterolContent110.7 mg
• fatContent17.6 g
• fiberContent6.9 g
• proteinContent31.4 g
• saturatedFatContent7.2 g
• sodiumContent1908 mg
• sugarContent18.3 g