Homemade Meatballs

Written with love, by Sarah-Elizabeth Labelle

I always thought that the Holiday season truly started around the first snow fall; when the weather is perfectly crisp, without being painfully freezing, and the snow floats down kissing our noses on a bright, late fall morning. I threaten my fiancé that snow will soon stick, and he may just come home to Christmas town.  I adore the Holidays, especially because it gives me another excuse to cook those hardy meals we all love to indulge in when the weather gets colder.

 My absolute favourite is coming home to my fiancé starting supper. He’ll rifle through some recipes that I’ve taught him, and put his own fun twist on things. One hardy meal that we both love is a good plate of spaghetti and homemade meat balls. Sitting down with a glass of wine and just the right amount of frost around the window makes any evening perfect.

Homemade meatballs can be done in a slow cooker with a variety of sauces, or if your partner wanted to throw this dinner together the evening of, as mine does, these can be cooked on the stove top as well.

Ingredients (Makes 20)

·         1 pound of ground beef

·         ½ a cup chopped onion

·         4 cloves of garlic

·         ½ teaspoon of paprika

·         ½ teaspoon of basil

·         ½ teaspoon of parsley

·         ½ teaspoon of oregano

·         ¼ teaspoon of salt

·         Block of cheese

·         ½ cup of olive oil

·         500mls tomato sauce (or barbeque sauce)

 Directions

1.       In a large bowl mix the ground beef in with the onion, garlic and spices and kneed the ground beef so all of the spices get dispersed properly

2.       Roll the ground beef into 2’ think balls, much like making cookies

3.       Cut the block of cheese into 1’ think cubes, and place them in the middle of the meatballs, these will melt later as a gooey center

4.       Brown the meatballs in a frying pan with roughly ½ cup of olive oil

5.       Next place the meatballs in a sauce pan and let them simmer in either a pasta sauce or barbeque sauce for roughly 20 – 30 minutes

6.       Serve with pasta, grated cheese and a big slice of garlic bread

**Wine recommended for this meal is Nero, an Italian deep red wine