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The next recipe I want to post is for my Italian tomato sauce, but for that recipe, you need these meatballs. To make these meatballs, you need to make tomato sauce, so this meatball recipe and this tomato sauce recipe go hand in hand. You could of course make these meatballs with a different sauce, or no sauce, or make the tomato sauce with different meatballs or no meatballs, but that would be just so wrong! I know there is no one right way to make things, but there are certainly wrong ways, and this recipe is one of the sacred ones in my repertoire. If too much is changed about either one, they cease to be MY sauce and MY meatballs, and one of the laws about my sauce and my meatballs is that they are made together. The meatballs are enhanced by the sauce and the sauce is enhanced by the meatballs. One without the other is only half a completed recipe.

This meatball recipe is an adaption of my mother’s meatballs recipe, which she learned from my grandmother. I’m not sure just how far back it goes but it is one of those classic beloved family recipes that have changed slightly with each generation. I know, I know, everyone’s family recipe for meatballs and sauce is the best, so who am I to claim that this is really any better than anyone else’s? I am not claiming that at all except I will say that, to my palate, this is the final word in Italian meatballs and tomato sauce. Other recipes can be delicious, but when I taste this recipe, I taste home. As I have mentioned, I have changed my mother’s recipe slightly, but she approves of my changes and absolutely loves my version. Italian-American cuisine just seems to come naturally to the cooks in my family. We have only a little Italian blood, but we have a lot of Italian American cultural influence in our family history. My grandmother had a successful Italian restaurant in Florida for a number of years which featured only her own recipes and she did a lot of the cooking, so I think that our cooking style is something to be proud of.

This recipe will yield anywhere from 10 to 20 meatballs depending on how large you like them, or about 6 servings. If you desire left overs, or are cooking for more than three people I recommend doubling this recipe.