Standing in for those without an Italian American grandmother: spaghetti & Jersey City meatballs with marinara

There’s something special about my daughter eating my grandmother’s meatballs, even though she never had the chance to meet her.

If there’s a single person to blame for my love of food and cooking, it’s my paternal grandmother.

Grandmothers and the foods they prepare are endlessly fascinating to me. If you tell me something is your grandmother’s recipe, I’m immediately intrigued and hope you’re not planning to keep it a secret.

Family recipes are a unique way to connect generations together, even those that may never have had the chance to meet.

My grandmother’s grandparents moved from Southern Italy to Jersey City, where she was born and grew up. She met and married my grandfather there before moving to the New Jersey suburbs (where I was born and raised). She always believed there was a “right” way to make every kind of food, and delighted in teaching me her ways.

Some of my fondest childhood memories are in her kitchen where we’d knead bread together and then watch Lidia Bastianich while it rose. Unsurprisingly, her most famous recipe was her meatballs with gravy.

If you’re going for the whole Italian-American Sunday dinner special (pasta, meatballs, sauce, etc), here’s the order I recommend making everything in order to be most efficient with your time:

1. Put on an apron. Make the marinara sauce, making sure to grate or mince extra garlic for your meatballs while you’re on that step.

2. While the marinara simmers, make and sear the meatballs, and then throw them into the pot of marinara sauce to finish cooking.

3. While the meatballs simmer in the sauce, cook your pasta. My grandmother would have served it alongside a simple mixed green and veggie salad with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper. She also wouldn’t have shied away from putting a loaf of sliced Italian bread and a stick of butter on the table.

Marinara sauce

This recipe makes enough for about four pounds of pasta. I always make a big batch so I can freeze it and use it later. It costs 1/4 of the price of store-bought marinara sauce, so I’m generally highly motivated to make large batches. Wait until the sauce is completely cool, then add it to a freezer bag. Lay the bag down flat as it freezes so you can easily break off chunks whenever you need some.

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
8 cloves of garlic, grated on a microplane or minced into a paste (yields a heaping tablespoon)
90-ounce can of San Marzano tomatoes, pureed in a blender (my preference) or crushed by hand
2 teaspoons kosher salt¹
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, plus more to taste
2 sprigs of fresh basil

1. Heat olive oil in a pot over medium-low heat.

2. Add the garlic to the oil and stir, allowing it to sizzle for a few seconds, but not turn brown. Add the tomatoes, salt, red pepper flakes, basil, and 2 cups of water.

3. Simmer, uncovered, for about 20 minutes over low heat to thicken.²

4. Remove and discard the basil.

Jersey City meatballs

This is my grandmother’s recipe and it makes about 1 dozen large meatballs. Could it be improved upon? Maybe…but they’re already great and then it wouldn’t be her recipe anymore. There’s something special about my daughter eating my grandmother’s meatballs, even though she never had the chance to meet her. If you’re looking for another meatball option, I love

Alison Roman

’s Goodbye Meatballs.

1 pound 85% lean ground beef
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 cloves garlic, grated on a microplane or minced into a paste
1 cup grated Locatelli Pecorino Romano cheese
1 cup Italian seasoned breadcrumbs
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons whole milk, more as needed
Olive oil for searing

1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Use your hands to mix together into a uniform mixture, but avoid over-mixing. Add extra milk as needed to achieve a “Play-Doh-like texture” (my grandmother’s description).

2. Form into golf-ball-sized meatballs.

3. Add enough olive oil to a skillet to cover the bottom. Heat the oil over medium-low³ heat until glistening.

4. Increase the heat to medium and add meatballs to the pan, leaving some space between them. They should sizzle immediately when they touch the oil. You may need to increase your heat to medium-high, depending on your stove.

5. Sear meatballs for about 1 minute, then turn them over and repeat. Sear on a third side, and then place into a simmering pot of marinara sauce. They will not be cooked through at this point, but they will finish cooking in the sauce.

Spaghetti no. 12

My favorite pasta to eat with meatballs and marinara sauce is DeCecco spaghetti no. 12, but my grandmother always made meatballs with fusilli col buco (aka fusilli lunghi), because that’s what my grandpa loved.

Cook the pasta until it’s al-dente, reserving at least 1 cup of pasta water before draining the rest. Put the pasta with a splash of pasta water and a few ladles of marinara sauce (enough to lightly coat the pasta) back in the pot and finish cooking it there.⁴ Serve with extra sauce in a gravy boat on the table, and plenty of Locatelli Pecorino Romano cheese.

While my kids practice their spaghetti twirling skills, I am practicing my patience and preparing their bubble bath.

1. The tomatoes have some salt added already, so adjust this according to your preferences and the salt content of the tomatoes you’re using.

2. For pizza sauce, you can continue to simmer this until it’s thicker than what you’d use for pasta.

3. Heating the olive oil slowly helps prevent it from burning and smoking.

4. Never serve pasta that has been drained from the water directly onto a plate with the sauce just drizzled on top, it’s not the same!