Spaghetti and meatballs

The secret is in the kneading. Just like kneading dough when making bread. You knead dough to coax the formation of gluten. You knead ground meat to break down fibers, and turn the bits of meat into a paste that binds more easily with the other ingredients.

First, season the ground beef and add the three ingredients that will help bind everything together. I cannot overstress the importance of binders because you don’t want the meatballs to crack and fall apart when you simmer them in the sauce.

The seasonings are, quite simply, salt, pepper, dried onion and dried garlic. Why dried? Because we don’t want to add unnecessary moisture to the mixture. Moisture creates steam inside the meatballs and that makes it more difficult for them to retain their shape. The binders are grated Pecorino, panko and egg. To make the meatballs bouncier, we add a little baking powder.

Once all the seasonings and binders have been mixed with the ground beef, we knead. Don’t think it’s a lot of hard work. A few minutes of kneading by hand is enough. But if you want to hasten the process even more, dump the ground beef mixture into the mixer and knead with the paddle attachment.

To make uniform-sized meatballs, we use an ice cream scoop. A small one about two inches in diameter. The meatballs are arranged on a baking tray and they go into the oven to brown. Browning adds flavor. It also creates a crust that makes it even harder for the meatballs to fall apart when added to the sauce.

As for the pasta sauce, we make it from scratch. Onion, garlic and oregano are sauteed in olive oil, homemade tomato sauce is poured in, bay leaf is added and the seasonings are stirred in. While the sauce simmers to reduce and concentrate the flavors, we cook the pasta.

We always add salt to the water before dropping in the noodles. We want the noodles seasoned all the way to the core. It’s smarter than simply relying on the sauce to provide flavor. By the time the sauce is simmering and the noodles are boiling, the meatballs should be ready to exit the oven.

The browned meatballs are dumped into the sauce and simmered. As the flavors of the meatballs and the sauce blend together, chances are, you will need to adjust the seasonings to balance everything.

Once the sauce is perfectly seasoned, check the spaghetti. While they are still a bit undercooked, scoop them out and add the noodles to the simmering sauce. Toss to coat each strand. The noodles will finish cooking in the hot sauce and, at the same time, soak up the lovely flavors.