Spaghetti and Meatballs (real food version)

I combined an existing recipe from Giada and some of my own ideas to create tonight's supper, a real food spin on a classic.

The sauce

• olive oil (a generous amount, 1/4-1/2 c.)
• yellow onion, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 carrots, finely chopped
• 2 celery stalks, finely chopped
• 1/2 t. sea salt
• 1/2 t. black pepper
• 1 qt. stewed tomatoes (we had a jar of them canned by a friend)
• 1 32 oz. can organic crushed tomatoes with basil
• 2 bay leaves

The meatballs

• 1 lb. hot italian sausage (the ground kind, not links)
• 2 garlic cloves minced
• sourdough bread crumbs (you'll have to make this on your own by drying out the bread and grinding it up in a food processor)
• 2 eggs
• 1 t. italian seasoning

1. Saute onion and garlic in olive oil in a large pot until tender.
2. Add carrots, celery, salt, and pepper then saute until tender.
3. Add tomatoes and bay leaves and bring to a boil while you prepare meatballs.
4. Mix meatball ingredients by hand for best results. Form meatballs the size of a ping pong ball. Carefully put meatballs into sauce.
5. Bring sauce to a boil. Let the sauce boil long enough to brown the outsides of the meatballs (10-15 minutes).
6. Simmer until the sauce is reduced. This can take 1-2 hours. We like a thick sauce so we let it simmer 2 hours and it was worth the wait!
7. Serve with pasta (We used organic rice pasta, I would have preferred spaghetti squash but it's not in season.)
8. Top with raw parmesan cheese. (I was pleasantly surprised to find this at Whole Foods!)

My mom gave me the idea to cook the meatballs in the sauce without sauteeing the outsides like many recipes do. It made the meatballs extremely flavorful and the sauce was so much better! I think next time I'll mix grassfed ground beef with the ground italian sausage to try a different flavor.

Enjoy!