Sunday Sauce Type of Day with Air Fryer Meatballs and Some Italian Bread

 

Let's just start by saying I have Monday off so I could relax in the kitchen today. No pressing urgency that I had only one day to do the cooking for the upcoming week. So I made meatballs. 

This is our house Meatball recipe-

THE MEATBALL RECIPE - I tear up a couple pieces of bread, either a roll or Italian bread, and add that with a small amount of milk to a bowl and let it sit. You want the bread to get mushy. Squeeze out as much milk as you can from the bread.

Add the meat, I use beef and pork and veal, or just beef and pork. One egg, Parmesan Cheese, oregano, salt, and pepper. Mix it gently with your hands and shape it into whatever size meatball you like. Yes, I use a kitchen scale so they are all the same size.

Preheat air fryer to 400°F.
Place meatballs in a single layer in the air fryer. Turn the air fryer down to 380°F.
Cook meatballs for 12-14 minutes or until browned and the center of the meatball reaches 165°F.

After the meatballs were "frying" I started the sauce. Ground beef, sausage, and ground veal into a saucepot. Brown the meat in some olive oil, sorry no measurements here, just cook with your heart. Add chopped onions and saute until translucent. Drain off as much of the grease as possible. Add the tomatoes. I used Tuttorroso crushed tomatoes because that is what my Mom used. Add the Air Fried Meatballs, salt, pepper, oregano, Italian seasoning, basil, parsley, and let simmer covered for about 2 to 3 hours.

That Italian Bread

I have been using this recipe for quite a while. It usually comes out of the oven with all the heels of the bread in place. Not sure what or who got their hands on the bread. The recipe is from Noshtalgia blog. I make the French bread recipe and call it Italian Bread.

Here is the recipe that I absolutely love!

Ingredients-
1 pkg. dry yeast
1 1/2 c. warm water
1 tbsp. sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. soft shortening
4 c. sifted all purpose flour

Method-
Measure flour into bowl, add water, then yeast. Let yeast dissolve thoroughly. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Let set 10 minutes, then cut through dough with a wooden spoon. Do this 5 times at 10 minute intervals. Turn dough out on floured board and divide in half. Let rest for 10 minutes, then roll each ball into a loaf. Make several diagonal slashes across each loaf. Let rise double. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes.