This makes a lot of spaghetti and meatballs, so you can either freeze some of the sauce and meatballs for later or cut the recipe in half. I have 2 teen boys, my husband, and me in the house, so I usually make big portions to make sure everyone is nice and full. The meatballs alone make about 35 2" meatballs.
1lbMozzarellaBlock of Mozzarella or Mozzarella Balls Work Best
Instructions
Spaghetti Sauce
Cook the chopped onions and garlic in the bottom of an olive oil covered pan. Cook onions for about 3 minutes, and then add the garlic and cook for another minute or two.
Empty your favorite jars of spaghetti sauce into the pan. Add the wine to the spaghetti jar, screw the lid back on, shake the jar, and pour in with the rest of the sauce (you're just getting that extra bit of sauce leftover in the jar). Add the remaining spaghetti sauce ingredients.
If you want your sauce to be a little thinner, you can go ahead and add a 1/4 cup at a time of chicken or beef broth. You can also do this at the end if you prefer, up to you, but doing it now will help the flavors cook into the sauce a little better.
Stir all of your ingredients together. If you're cooking in a pot, put a lid on top and cook for at least 2 hours.
After your sauce is done, you can let it sit on warm until your meatballs are done.
Venison Meatballs
Heat oven to 350ºF, and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
Put basil, onion, garlic, Italian seasoning, Parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper in a food processor. Grind until everything is broken down a bit - the finer it is, the easier it is to form into meatballs and have the meatballs hold together better.
Beat the eggs in a large bowl. Add in milk and beat again to incorporate. Add in panko crumbs and stir again to help fluff up the crumbs. Add the egg mix to the food processor mixture and mix around to incorporate the ingredients. Set aside the mix for a few moments.
While your hands are still clean - at least before you start getting them dirty with raw meat - cut your mozzarella so it's close by and easy to insert into your meatballs. Depending on how big your meatballs are, you'll be using probably about the same size as the tip of your thumb - a dime size, perhaps.
Now it's time to form your meatballs. Put your ground meat into your mix and squish it all together with your hands until well mixed. Now, you can do one of two things here 1) eyeball the size you want your meatballs, insert a bit of the cheese, and roll the meatball or 2) measure out and roll your meatballs before hand to about 1.5 oz for spaghetti and 1 oz for appetizers, and then insert the cheese into the middle of each meatball, while closing the ball to cover the cheese.
Place meatballs, separated, on the parchment covered baking sheets. Put in the oven and cook for 30-40 minutes. If you're cooking spaghetti squash to go with your meatballs, this is a good time to stick the halved squash in the oven as well.
Cook your spaghetti noodles or spaghetti squash, and once done, combine everything like you would any spaghetti recipe.
Notes
Add as much basil, onion, and garlic as you like. If you're sensitive to these ingredients, hold back a bit. With the spaghetti sauce, you can always add more or less of something as it cooks.