Reviewed: Jan. 21, 2012

I've made these twice now. Great meatball recipe - easy enough to modify a bit for personal preferences. (I added some Oregano for instance for a bit more Italian-kick) I made these once with the 1/4 lb ground pork - and the 2nd time with 1/4 lb ground mild Italian sausage. Both were excellent - I liked the Italian sausage meat better. IMPORTANT: Cut the bread crumb amount in half. I got that hint from other comments.

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Reviewer:

mudsneaker

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: Sequim, Washington, USA

Living In: Olympia, Washington, USA

Reviewed: Nov. 6, 2011

A very good recipe. I made a few changes: used all ground chuck ( do not get too fancy with your choice of meats for Italian meatballs), I added one minced shallot, and about 1/2 C of ricotta cheese into the meatball mix. Cooking the meatballs IN the sauce is critical. Anything else and you just made dogfood.

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Reviewer:

GRAVYMAN

Cooking Level: Expert

Living In: Huntsville, Alabama, USA

Reviewed: Nov. 23, 2010

Excellent!

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Reviewer:

MarieM

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Home Town: Queens, New York, USA

Living In: Randolph, New Jersey, USA

Reviewed: Oct. 16, 2009

I only made the meatballs and made these changes: reduced breadcrumbs to 3/4 cup, reduced romano cheese to 3/4 cup, added some Italian seasoning, used only ground beef. They tasted great!

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Reviewer:

seasidemom

Reviewed: Jul. 8, 2009

I didn't care for the meatballs or the sauce. The Romano cheese in the meatballs was way too strong. My other recipe uses Parmesan and it tastes much better. The sauce was bland and tasted like paste.

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Reviewer:

Ms. Dee

Reviewed: Jan. 4, 2009

This was great! My husband and kids loved this recipe.

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Reviewer:

Lynn Smith

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: Detroit, Michigan, USA

Living In: Stafford, Virginia, USA

Reviewed: Sep. 22, 2008

You may want to add some spice to it.

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Reviewer:

MatSounds

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Living In: Orlando, Florida, USA

Reviewed: Feb. 11, 2008

I only used the meatball recipe and made with my own pasta sauce. Everyone raved about the meatballs. Very good recipe.

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Reviewer:

GMO

Cooking Level: Intermediate

Reviewed: Jan. 5, 2008

I only made the meatballs and they are great.

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Reviewer:

DMorr99

Cooking Level: Expert

Home Town: Newburg, West Virginia, USA

Reviewed: Jan. 9, 2006

The meatballs for this recipe are fantastic, but the proportions for the sauce are all wrong. There's so much tomato paste, and so little of anything else, that the whole thing ends up tasting like tomato paste. I would go with 30 ounces of paste and 18 ounces of tomato sauce, rather than 48 ounces of paste and no sauce. Also, throw in 2 onions instead of 1, twice as much mushroom, bay leaf, and basil, 6 (or more) garlic cloves, half a cup or so of parsely, and 2 teaspoons each of oregano and thyme. Stand by with some sugar (a tablespoon or two) if you need to cut it further. Also, when the porkchops simmer for 8 hours, they end up tasteless without adding anything to the sauce, so maybe put them in later. If there's less concentrated paste flavor and more other flavors, this sauce would be great. (Again, the meatballs are wonderful.) But as it is, it's not worth 9 hours of your time. (Also, this makes a lot more than 10 servings; I'd guess 15 or 20.)

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