Spaghetti and Meatballs for a Crowd
Spaghetti and meatballs is such a classic comforting meal. Hubby and I go an annual ski trip up to Maine with a big group of friends. Since I don’t enjoy skiing, I love to spend the day in the kitchen at the huge log cabin we rent. It’s always one of my favorite weekends of the winter.
Feeding 18-20 people can always be a challenge. I always shoot for comforting foods since everyone is exhausted after a cold day of skiing. Last year, I made this Spaghetti and Meatballs for a Crowd. I had never made meatballs before these and I can honestly say I’ll never try another recipe. I used bacon instead of prosciutto since that’s what I had on hand. The ground pork and bacon add a great smokiness and round out the flavor of the meatballs. I used my cupcake-sized ice cream scoop to portion out the meat so that I’d get nice large meatballs.
This recipe was perfect for serving a huge crowd and it would be great to make one weekend to throw into the freezer. Or to give someone who’s expecting a baby. Or renovating their kitchen. You could also cut the recipe in half if you want a more reasonable serving size. That’s definitely something to consider if you don’t have two large pots to cook the sauce in!
One Year Ago: Lemon Meringue Cupcakes
Two Years Ago: Layered Marshmallow Brownies
Four Years Ago: Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes with Dairy Free Mexican Hot Chocolate Frosting
Spaghetti and Meatballs for a Crowd
Make this for a crowd or to portion out and throw into your freezer. The meatballs are the best I've ever had!
Yield: Serves 12-14
Ingredients:
For the Meatballs
2 1/4 cups panko bread crumbs
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 pounds 85 percent lean ground beef
1 pound ground pork
6 ounces thinly sliced prosciutto, chopped fine
1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
6 Tbsp minced fresh parsley leaves
5 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through garlic press
1 1/2 tsp powdered gelatin, dissolved in 3 Tbsp cold water
Salt and ground black pepper
For the Sauce
3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 1/2 cups grated onion from 1 to 2 onions
6 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through garlic press
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 tsp dried oregano
6 cups tomato juice (bottled)
3 (28-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
6 Tbsp dry white wine
Salt and ground black pepper
Spaghetti (3 pounds if cooking for a crowd, otherwise just make what you need)
1/2 cup minced fresh basil leaves
3 Tbsp minced fresh parsley leaves
Granulated sugar
Grated Parmesan cheese, for serving
Directions:
For the meatballs
Place wire racks in 2 foil-lined rimmed baking sheets. Adjust oven racks to lower-middle and upper-middle positions, and preheat oven to 450 F.
Combine bread crumbs and buttermilk in large bowl and let sit, mashing occasionally with fork, until a smooth paste forms, about 10 minutes.
Add eggs, beef, pork, prosciutto, Parmesan, parsley, garlic, gelatin mixture, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper to bread crumb mixture. Gently mix everything with your hands until thoroughly combined.
Spray the wire racks with nonstick cooking spray (or rub them with olive oil). Form meatballs using about 1/4 cup of meat mixture per meatball, and space the meatballs out on the racks as you form them. You should end up with about 40 meatballs.
Roast until browned, about 30 minutes, rotating trays from front to back and top to bottom halfway through.
For the Sauce
While the meatballs roast, heat olive oil in a LARGE Dutch oven or other pot over medium heat until shimmering. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and golden around edges, 6 to 8 minutes.
Add garlic, red pepper flakes, and oregano, and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
Stir in tomato juice, crushed tomatoes, wine, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and pepper to taste. Increase heat to medium-high, and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until slightly thickened, about 15 minutes.
Remove meatballs from oven, and lower oven temperature to 300 degrees. Add meatballs to sauce, cover pot, and place in oven. You may need to separate the sauce in to two pots at this time to fit everything.
Cook until meatballs are firm and sauce has thickened, about 1 hour.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to package directions.
To serve
Stir the basil and parsley into the sauce, and add sugar, salt, and pepper, as necessary.
Toss the pasta with a little bit of sauce to coat it. Top pasta with meatballs and extra sauce. Sprinkle grated Parmesan on top, if desired.
Recipe from Cooks Illustrated, as seen on Delicious Dishings
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
I really like cuban sandwiches, and in mini form, I would like them even better!
beantownbaker — January 28th, 2013 @ 12:48 pm
Especially if that sandwich was soaked in butter for 24 hours 😉
I am a huge fan of the ham and cheese sliders so I can only imagine how delicious these are!
beantownbaker — January 28th, 2013 @ 12:49 pm
Seriously, I had to put them away so we wouldn’t eat all of them in one sitting this weekend…
I love that you and Fiona made all the food for the party — So much fun!! And I can see why these sandwiches would be a hit!
beantownbaker — January 28th, 2013 @ 12:50 pm
We were definitely on cloud 9 with the prospect of planning all the food for the party.
love that you guys did the menu planning! these must’ve been a hit, they look fantastically amazing 🙂 i’m coming around to pickles… but i dunno about putting them on a sandwich. perhaps better there- they’re surrounded by more delicious things!
beantownbaker — January 28th, 2013 @ 4:34 pm
Glad to hear I’m not the only one. I actually ate one of these little guys that had pickles on it, but Hubby picked them out for me. It wasn’t horrible. I usually can’t even come close to things that have touched pickles.
That photo makes so much sense now. I love pickles and think these sliders would definitely be the hit of any Super Bowl party.
I love pickles! That’s funny you have such an aversion to them 🙂 I’ve never had a cuban sandwich, but these look very tasty!
beantownbaker — January 29th, 2013 @ 9:41 am
Ew. I’m not sure we can be friends. I kid… I definitely don’t let Hubby eat pickles because I can’t even handle it. It’s honestly the one food that I can’t stand…
These look really good, but I have cardiac issues, and 2 sticks of butter is a big no-no for me. Could that amount be cut back or substituted with something else?
Thanks.
beantownbaker — January 29th, 2013 @ 12:40 pm
You could definitely cut back on the amount of butter in these if you wanted to. I would just cut the sauce in half and just pour it over the top instead of on the top and bottom of the sandwiches.
We make iterations of this one all the time…..this is making me hungry for Sunday! We should make Katie buy the ingredients!
beantownbaker — January 30th, 2013 @ 5:32 pm
Definitely a good idea!! 🙂
I just made these for the Super Bowl & they were amazing! Our guests loved them & they were so easy to make! Yum!
beantownbaker — February 4th, 2013 @ 4:45 pm
So glad you enjoyed them!!
AWESOME. I have a Cuban friend who would LOVE these. Going to give this a shot soon! I really love the combination of ingredients.
beantownbaker — February 5th, 2013 @ 10:14 am
Hubby is Cuban and he definitely enjoyed them 🙂 Hope you and your friend do too!
I made a double batch of these for our Christmas party last week. Total hit! and the most requested recipe from the party. I served them in indiv. muffin top wrappers to make them accessible and less messy. I think wrapping them indiv in that waxy sandwich papers would work as well. Love the night before set up. The only edits I made were to use some jalapeno-dill pickles and I found some Kings Hawaiin dinner rolls. Regrettably there were not enough leftovers for lunch the next day for both hubbie and me.
beantownbaker — December 26th, 2013 @ 11:03 am
Glad to hear this recipe was a hit for you! Your edits sound great. Hubby has requested these for our New Years Eve party next week.
My family devoured these. They are so good they want them for Christmas Eve dinner.
beantownbaker — December 26th, 2013 @ 11:03 am
So glad you guys liked these!
Probably a really silly question, but…..
Grated dried onions? What is that exactly?
Any substitute suggestions?
beantownbaker — January 2nd, 2014 @ 1:34 pm
They’re also called minced onions I believe. You can find them in the spice aisle at your grocery store.
Use a little Sweet Pickle Relish instead of Pickles.
beantownbaker — January 5th, 2014 @ 7:05 pm
Great suggestion! I’ll have to try that next time. I’m not a huge fan of relish either, but it’s much better than pickles in my mind.
Oh I could just eat these up in one bite! Yum! I’m thinking of adding a slice of jalepeño in there too…..
beantownbaker — February 3rd, 2014 @ 4:52 pm
Oh jalepeno would be a great addition!
Made these for Superbowl 2014…total hit! So easy and nice you can prepare them the night before! Leftovers 2 days later are just as good! This recipe is definitely a keeper, thank you!
beantownbaker — February 5th, 2014 @ 9:53 am
So glad you enjoyed the recipe!
What size baking dish should be used ? “Place another baking sheet on top…” suggests these are prepared on a baking sheet, but baking dish and baking sheet aren’t the same really. If the baking sheet is used on top, is it weighted to press down on the sandwiches? Sorry, but I never made anything like this and I would love to – they sound delicious!!!
beantownbaker — September 2nd, 2014 @ 7:10 pm
Not sure if you ended up trying these. The baking sheet on top is to help press the sandwiches similar to a classic Cuban sandwich. I would use a pan the same size as what you’re using for the sandwiches. I always double the recipe and use a jelly roll pan for the sandwiches.
A little confused about cutting at the bun seams to cut through the meat? Making these for Fathers Day this weekend! Looking forward to trying these!
beantownbaker — September 2nd, 2014 @ 7:11 pm
Hope these worked out for you. Since you layer the meat on all sandwiches at once, you want to cut through the meat so they pull apart after they’re baked.
these are the best ever! every time I make them folks go wild! I’m not a fan of poppy seeds since they get stuck in my teeth lol so I subbed Lipton onion soup mix for the seeds & dried onion. Weird, but it works. thanks for sharing the recipe !
Interesting substitution. Glad you were able to find something that works for you!
Uhhhhhmazing!!!!! I made for the 2015 Superbowl and it was a huge hit!!! Such a hit I’m already expected to bring to the next get togethers.
Only thing I did different was no poppy seeds and I made my own honey mustard and skipped mustard at the end when you state to put spread some on top. I’m not a huge mustard fan so I eliminated that step and figured the sauce was enough and I was very happy with that decision, it was solo yummy! Thanks for sharing!
Made this for Superbowl 15 and they were a huge hit – SO GOOD! I used Trader Joe’s store bought pulled pork and substituted bread and butter (sweet) pickles for dill. Everyone loved them and the only problem is we can’t stop eating them. These sandwiched plus the Pats victory made for a perfect night for us New Englanders! Thanks!!
Do the buns not get soggy overnight?
I made these and they were pretty rich with the butter. I would decrease it as you suggested, Jen. I think in lieu of pickles, mild pepper rings would work well.
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