Spaghetti sauce with meatballs and sausage

Make the basic marinara sauce and bring it up to a simmer.

While it's coming up to temperature, take 1 pound of Italian sausages (sweet or hot, or a little bit of both) and brown them in a skillet. Poke a few holes in the casings to drain a little bit of the fat, but don't worry, they'll still stay plenty moist. Make sure you really let the sausages brown on the outside, just this side of burning. When they're crisp enough, take them out and cut in half (they won't be fully cooked but that's OK). Add them to the sauce. Drain the fat from the skillet and add a little bit of water. Put the skillet back over heat, and with a wooden spoon or a spatula, scrape off all the fond (the carmelized meat and drippings on the bottom of the pan) from the skillet (this process is called deglazing). Pour this into the sauce and stir gently to distribute throughout. It adds a tremendous richness to the sauce.

If you don't like sausage, I recommend getting a small portion of country spare ribs, or some such pork, browning it in a bit of olive oil, and adding that and the deglazed fond to the sauce. A little bit of pork really makes a huge difference in the richness and taste of sauce.

While the sausage is cooking, mix up your meatballs:

1 pound of chopped meat -- you can use anything from plain beef (no more than 10 % fat), to a meatball mixture that contains beef, pork and/or veal. Some even use turkey, and while it can be done, it really doesn't taste the same. (If you do use turkey, you'll need to add a bit more bread crumbs to make sure it holds together).

1 medium onion diced

2-3 tbsp. fresh Italian flat leaf parseley, finely chopped (you can substitute dried parseley, but use 1/2 of the amount

1/3 cup seasoned Italian bread crumbs

2-3 single hands full of cold water

1/4 cup grated parmigiana cheese (don't waste your money on the really expensive stuff when you add it to meatballs -- save that for when the taste doesn't get as diluted as this does)

1 tsp. fresh cracked black pepper

2 fresh eggs

I don't recommend adding any salt because the cheese and bread crumbs already contain plenty, but if you like your food salty, add just a little bit more.

Mix this all up with your hands (the best cooking tool you have!) just until it's all mixed through. It should still be moist, but able to form a solid ball that won't fall apart on you. If the meatballs feel too solid or bready, add a little more water to the mixture.

Form this into approximately 15 smallish meatballs and drop them gently into the simmering sauce. Space them out and gently push them under the surface with a spoon. Then let them sit for about 30 minutes before stirring gently. There is no need to fry or bake these meatballs before you put them in the sauce, and they will be incredibly moist when done.

The sauce and all the meat can be easily frozen for months at a time. Just be sure that you fill whatever container you're freezing in close to the top (leave a little room for it to expand when frozen) so that there's not a lot of room for ice to form on top and freezer burn to happen.