Best meatball recipe | Easy pasta ideas | Jamie Oliver (2024)

FAQs

What pasta do Italians eat with meatballs? ›

Polpette Al Forno

"Al forno" simply means "baked in an oven," and it's the most customary way you'll find meatballs and pasta in the same dish together in Italy. While spaghetti and meatballs may not be so common, a casserole-style dish of pasta and meatballs certainly is - think baked ziti!

Baking will result in meatballs with a crunchy exterior, though the caramelisation achieved from frying will be superior. Baked meatballs take the least amount of effort, as you'll only need to turn them once or twice throughout the cook and you can make a larger batch at once.

Adding raw meatballs to the sauce and gently simmering till cooked yields ultra-tender results, and infuses the sauce with meaty flavor—a slow cooker gives great results.

The best side dishes to serve with spaghetti and meatballs are brussels sprouts, brats, onion rings, broccoli and cauliflower, quinoa salad, collard greens, garlic bread, potatoes and carrots, lima beans, cheese rolls, and caesar salad.

The iconic quartet of carbonara, cacio e pepe, amatriciana and gricia make up the four most famous and beloved Roman pasta dishes. Find out more about them with our handy guide.

Spaghetti Bolognese

It is commonly served with parmesan cheese. The dish is one of Italy's most popular exports, and thought to have originated in Imola, a northern Italian city west of Bologna some time around the late 1800s - when the first reference to the dish's ragu sauce was recorded.

If you are making meatballs and are wondering how long you need to cook them, you came to the right place. After all of the Italian meatballs I've been making lately, I consider myself a meatball expert. A good rule of thumb is to bake meatballs for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees fahrenheit.

The longer the simmer, the more tender and succulent the meatballs become. 3. Concentration of Flavors: Simmering at a low temperature for an extended period also encourages the sauce to reduce and thicken.

Don't add much apart from meat

Don't add too many non-meat ingredients to your meatballs. Herbs and spices are fine, but once you start adding loads of chopped vegetables you'll be creating all sorts of difficulty when it comes to getting it all to stick together.

How to make meatballs that don t fall apart in sauce? ›

Drop the meatballs into simmering pasta sauce, do not stir for at least 20 minutes or you will risk breaking the meatballs. Continue cooking in the simmering sauce for another 20 minutes (depending on how fast your sauce is simmering 40 minutes total should fully cook the meatballs).

Chill your meatballs: refrigerating your meatballs an hour before cooking helps them hold their shape throughout the cooking process. They can chill in the fridge for up to 24 hours before cooking, making meatballs a great make-ahead dish, too.

Although meatballs cooked in tomato sauce and served with pasta is likely what most Americans first imagine when they think of them, this meatball preparation is virtually nonexistent in Italy. In most regions, meatballs are just fried and eaten as is—enjoyed as a snack or served as a second course without any sauce.

Spaghetti: The most famous long pasta shape, spaghetti mixes wonderfully with a variety of sauces. It's the classic shape to serve with meatballs.

However, combinations of pasta with meat date back at least to the Middle Ages, and pasta (including long pasta) dishes with tomato sauce and different types of meatballs are documented in certain Italian regions and in modern Italian cookbooks as maccheroni alle polpette (translated as 'spaghetti with meatballs') and ...

However, combinations of pasta with meat date back at least to the Middle Ages, and pasta (including long pasta) dishes with tomato sauce and different types of meatballs are documented in certain Italian regions and in modern Italian cookbooks as maccheroni alle polpette (translated as 'spaghetti with meatballs') and ...

Meatballs are traditionally served with gravy or brown sauce, boiled potatoes (or mashed potatoes), lingonberry jam, and sometimes pickled cucumber or pickled beetroot. In France, meatballs are known as boulettes de viande or (in Northern France) fricadelles. They can be made of beef, veal, pork or fish.

Ravioli are square and tortellini are ring shaped, but both make for hearty meals and are filled with cheese, meat, and more. There are many different types of stuffed pastas, including baked dishes like stuffed shells and manicotti, as well as more recent inventions like stuffed rigatoni.

Yes, Italy has its version of meatballs called polpettes, but they differ from their American counterpart in multiple ways.