Caramelized Onion Meatballs & Spaghetti

For New Year's Eve in Filipino culture long types of food is served in abundance to promote a long healthy life in the coming year and round foods welcomes good luck all year round. I contributed Spaghetti & Meatballs, which isn't Filipino, but a dish we enjoy in our family all the time and perfectly fitted for the occasion.

The meatballs were a hit and it was so good that I actually started craving them again a few nights ago haha.

Overall, I'm very happy with this recipe. Unlike the first time around, I decided to puree the onions and basil hoping to intensify the flavor a bit more and to ensure a nice juicy meatball. Good thing I did! Both versions are delicious though.

 Caramelized Onion Meatballs

Ingredients

• 2 pounds ground beef
• 1 cup caramelized onions (click here for recipe)
• 1/2 cup basil leaves chopped
• 1 cup italian bread crumbs
• 2 eggs beaten
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• hefty pinch pepper
• 1 tablespoon butter

Cooking Directions

1. Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature.
2. In a blender, puree the caramelized onions, basil, salt, and pepper.
3. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together egg and puree. Add in meat and breadcrumbs.
4. Form balls to desired size. Refrigerate for at least 10 minutes.
5. In a large frying pan coated with a little bit of butter, sear meatballs until brown on all sides. Make sure to drain all excess oil after each batch.
6. Continue cooking in oven or for this particular dish, spaghetti sauce for another 15 minutes.

Unfortunately we ran out of whole wheat spaghetti pasta, so I had to work with some canton noodles instead. You may be more familiar with these if you eat Chinese takeout like Lo Mein. It's very similar looking to spaghetti, but it's got a lot more wheat in it so it's a little more heavy.

For the meatballs, I created a puree of caramelized onions and basil seasoned with salt & pepper of course. I used just regular store bought Italian bread crumbs and eggs to bind the ingredients together.

As you can tell, we use this pan quite a bit! Might be a good time for a replacement haha!

After refrigerating meatballs for at least 10 minutes, I browned them in the pan. Be sure to drain/spoon out some of that excess oil from the meatballs as you fry them and before adding the sauce.

Normally, I stick meatballs in the oven to continue cooking, for this dish I wanted the spaghetti sauce to be infused with some of that meaty flavor, so instead I finished cooking the meatballs in the pan with the sauce.

Get Your Feast On!