Spaghetti and Meatballs

Classic beef and Italian sausage spaghetti and meatballs makes the ultimate comfort food. Tossed in a simple, flavorful tomato sauce and served over angel hair pasta, it’s hard not to love this dish.

Parmesan cheese sprinkled over a plate of Spaghetti and Meatballs

Ten years ago this week, a storm was brewin’, and I had no idea what was about to happen. As a Tennessean and as someone who’d never actually experienced a hurricane before, I didn’t have a clue, other than I assumed it would be like an extended tornado. (Thank goodness it’s not like that. Tornadoes are terrifying, y’all.)

There’s no way any of us could have known what was about to happen.

At the end of the first week of the fall semester, LSU announced classes would be cancelled the following Monday because of the storm. I was in the photo lab, printing a few images for my advanced photo class, when one of my classmates announced the news. We were all excited because it meant we’d have a long weekend. And we were all excited because none of us actually expected the hurricane to hit.

We’d been lucky previous years. No hurricanes came close enough to merit class cancellation my freshman year. My sophomore year, we were granted time off for Hurricane Ivan, which hit the Alabama coast. We didn’t see a drop of rain.

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    I assumed Katrina would be the same.

    Overhead view of spaghetti and meatballs on white plate with fork

    As the weekend progressed, I became more nervous as the storm grew nearer, becoming an imminent threat.

    The thing was… thousands of New Orleanians had already evacuated to Baton Rouge (and further west and north and east, too), and the streets were jammed; hotels packed; restaurants crowded. And for me to go home to Memphis? It would be near impossible. If I was lucky enough to drive out of Baton Rouge and the surrounding areas, there was no telling what I-55 would look like. And just like that, the fleeting idea of going home was squashed.

    So after church on Sunday, the 28th, I ended up at the grocery store, purchasing ingredients to make my mom’s famous spaghetti and meatballs while everyone else was purchasing liquor, water and other storm essentials.

    White plate of spaghetti and meatballs with fork and grated cheese

    Even in college, I knew cooking helped relieve stress, so while other people prepared for the hurricane, I spent my afternoon in the kitchen.

    Spaghetti and meatballs is the comfort food I turn to when something is going wrong in my life, and the day before Katrina hit, that’s what I whipped up.

    Now, every time I make spaghetti and meatballs — or spag ‘n balls, as we lovingly call it in my family — I think about that day and that time in my life.

    I naively stayed in the kitchen all afternoon, channeling my nerves and making a massive pot of spaghetti and meatballs to feed my friends the night before Katrina made landfall.

    I had no idea what was going to happen.

    I had no idea how our lives, our friends’ lives, our city and our state, as well as the state I would live in after graduation, were going to be forever altered by that storm.

    Instead of focusing on my fear of the unknown and a massive hurricane bearing down on a state I’d come to adore, I made meatballs.

    Close up of spaghetti and meatballs on white plate

    I’ll be back Friday with some more Katrina reflections and another recipe, which highlights a favorite drink of mine that I was introduced to in New Orleans after Katrina.

     

    Close up of spaghetti and meatballs on white plate

    Spaghetti and Meatballs

    Erin Parker, The Speckled Palate
    Classic beef and Italian sausage spaghetti and meatballs makes the ultimate comfort food. Tossed in a simple, flavorful tomato sauce and served over angel hair pasta, it's hard not to love this dish.
    5 from 5 votes
    Servings 6 servings
    Calories 551 kcal
    Prep Time 15 minutes
    Cook Time 1 hour 30 minutes
    Total Time 1 hour 45 minutes

    Ingredients
      

    Meatballs

    • 1 lb. ground beef 85% lean
    • ½ lb. mild Italian sausage
    • 1 ½ cup yellow onion finely chopped (about 1 large onion)
    • 1 ½ tablespoons garlic minced (about 7-8 smaller cloves)
    • 1 cup breadcrumbs fresh
    • 1 egg
    • 1 teaspoon dried basil 2 teaspoons fresh
    • 1 tablespoon dried oregano 2 tablespoons fresh
    • 1 teaspoon black pepper
    • ½ teaspoon kosher salt

    Sauce

    • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
    • 1 garlic clove , whole
    • 28 oz. tomato puree
    • 1 cup water
    • 2 tablespoons tomato paste
    • 2 tablespoons dried oregano 4 tablespoons fresh
    • 1 teaspoon black pepper freshly ground
    • 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
    • ½ teaspoon kosher salt

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    Instructions
     

    Make the Meatballs

    • In a large bowl, measure in the beef, sausage, onion, garlic, breadcrumbs, egg and spices.
    • Using your hands, knead the ingredients together until they are well combined and evenly dispersed.
    • Using an ice cream scoop (or a cookie scoop if you'd like smaller meatballs), measure out the ingredients. Form into balls in the palms of your hand.
    • Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the garlic clove as the oil heats, letting the garlic infuse the oil.
    • Add the meatballs to the Dutch oven when the oil is hot.
    • Brown the meatballs on all sides, flipping every so often with kitchen tongs.

    Make the sauce

    • When the meatballs have browned, pour in the tomato puree, water and paste.
    • Add the seasonings -- oregano, basil, pepper, salt, red pepper -- and stir until combined.
    • Cover the Dutch oven. Lower the heat and simmer for an hour.
    • Serve warm over spaghetti (or the pasta of your choice) with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

    Nutrition

    Serving: 1servingCalories: 551kcalCarbohydrates: 36gProtein: 35gFat: 30gSaturated Fat: 10gPolyunsaturated Fat: 19gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 120mgSodium: 891mgFiber: 6gSugar: 12g
    Course Entrees
    Cuisine American Italian
    Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

    Do you have any Hurricane Katrina memories?

    Is it as hard to believe for you as it is for me that it’s been ten years?

    A woman with dark curly hair wearing a black tank top in front of a white wall

    About the Author:

    Erin Parker is a Southern gal living in Texas with her husband and two daughters. She started The Speckled Palate to share what she was cooking as a newlywed… and over the years, it’s evolved to capture her love for hosting. Specifically, the EASIEST, lowest key entertaining because everyone deserves to see their people and connect over good food. Learn more about her

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    6 Comments

    1. This looks so delicious, and meatballs over angel hair are my favorite, too. 🙂 Interesting that you went for a comfort food dish in that situation; before Gustav in 2008, I used up all the chicken in my freezer to make chicken parmesan for myself and a bunch of friends before we evacuated. We got lucky that time (thank God it wasn’t another Katrina) and I remember that pre-evacuation dinner fondly. Thanks for sharing this, and I look forward to reading about your other memories.

    2. I went home to Houston, then couldn’t get back for a week (or longer? Can’t remember). I think the toughest part for me watching it in Houston was that I felt like I should be there, on campus, at the paper, helping out in some way. All I could do was give blood and keep my eyes glued to the television, while all of my friends were reporting the stories in the Reveille, helping out at the PMAC, and being amazing rockstar people. Is it weird I was jealous of them?
      Also, now i’m starving. Thanks, dear.

    3. We never know what defining moments are going to intersect with our lives, do we? And so we cope in whatever ways we can. Spaghetti and meatballs sounds like a good coping plan to me.

    4. I’ve been through a bunch of hurricanes on the NC coast, but nothing ever on the scope of Katrina. So scary. It definitely makes you react differently to any hurricane news from then on. Like the run-up to Sandy, when half of NYC seemed to be posting jokes about storm supplies of vodka and twinkies, and all of us who had actually been through a hurricane were all “OMG, NO, YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND.” You really need a solid dinner of comfort food when a real storm is on the way.

    5. I can’t say enough about this spaghetti sauce! I used to doctor up a jar and call it done, and it was adequate- but I now make this fabulous sauce- and sometimes make the meatballs, and sometimes brown the meats with onions and add them to the sauce. Spaghetti is a go to when time is short. I’ve made this in my instapot as well as on the stove and also in my crock pot. This sauce is so easy and so versatile. I use it as a base for my Spaghetti Pie- and it’s always a hit when I take it somewhere. Never will I buy a jar sauce again. Thanks, Erin!

      1. THANK YOU so much for your comment, Holly! I love that sometimes, you’ll just make the sauce, while other times, you’ll add meatballs or ground meat with onions. I happen to do the same thing, depending on the amount of time I have in the kitchen. I haven’t tried this in the Instant Pot yet, though, so I’m going to try that next!

        I’m so happy to hear this recipe has been a huge assistance to you in the kitchen! I hope you keep on making all the delicious things and that I get to try some of your Spaghetti Pie sometime soon!

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