I recently spent a week in San Francisco and had the opportunity to eat at a local gourmet Italian pizza place called Tony's Pizza Napoletana. Their wood fired pizza's were amazing but my eyes were trained on the plates of meatballs that kept steaming from the kitchen. If an item on any menu is getting that kind of attention it's got to be good. My second visit to this eatery had me ordering the Lasagna and a plate of three meatballs. Both were the best I have had. That said, the meatballs were out of this world good! This inspired me to do some research on authentic meatballs and sauces. I came to find that in Italy you don't get Spaghetti & Meatballs as a meal. You get meatballs or you have pasta with a red sauce or a red sauce with meat called Ragu. It was Americanized in the US and the Meatballs were combined with the stringy pasta noodles. Another difference is authentic sauce has no meat and San Marzano Tomatoes are used. These tomatoes have a richer meat and fewer seeds. When you buy them canned the sauce or juice should be thicker and darker red in color. Another trick is to boil pigs feet, rinse them and then add them to the sauce as it's cooking. Once the sauce is cooked just discard the pigs feet. This is supposed to ad greater flavor to the sauce. You will also notice in this recipe I use baking soda. The baking soda neutralizes some of the acid from the tomatoes to boost flavor. Let's get on with the cook!

Making the Meatballs

We will start by pre-heating the cooker to 225 degrees. In this smoke I used apple wood pellets. Now begin chopping up 4 slices of soft white bread. Once the bread is chopped set it aside.

In a small mixing bowl combine 3 eggs, 1 tsp oregano, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp coarse ground black pepper, 5 cloves fresh minced garlic and 1 tbsp parsley. Mix thoroughly with a fork.

In a small bowl combine chopped white bread with 1/4 cup milk. Mix thoroughly so all the bread is moistened. Set bread aside.

In a large mixing bowl combine 4 lbs. lean ground beef, 2 lbs. pork sausage, 1/2 cup minced sweet onion, 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese and white bread. Mix thoroughly with your hands. By now the meat mixture should be smelling wonderful.

Now it's time to make the meatballs. Grease a couple cooking racks. Start forming 1 3/4" to 2" meatballs and place them on to the greased cooking racks. Place the racks of meatballs in your smoker and cook @ 225 degrees until the internal temp reaches 165 degrees. You can also pull the meatballs at 145 degrees and let them finish cooking in the sauce. Ultimately they will end up in the sauce.

 Making the Sauce

When the meatballs reach 130 degrees it's a good time to start on the sauce.

In a large mixing bowl pour in the 4 28 oz. cans of San Marzano tomatoes. Yours may be whole or cut depending on what was available. In my case I got two of each and had to cut up and squish the whole tomatoes. Notice the deep red color and fewer seeds. The choice in tomatoes makes all the difference.

Place a large pot on the stove over medium heat and pour in 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil. When the oil comes up to temp, add in 1/2 cup minced white onion,  3.4 cup minced celery, 1/4 cup minced carrots and 1/2 garlic minced. Cook while stirring until onions become translucent and the colors appear to have faded.

Pour in the San Marzano tomatoes being careful not to splash sauce all over yourself and your kitchen as I did in the video. I hate it when that happens! Tear up a couple fresh basil leaves and stir them in. You will notice in my cooks I tend to use fresh herbs. They just seem to provide better flavor then dried. Add 2 tsp Italian seasoning, 2 tsp oregano and 2 6 oz. cans of tomato paste. Stir the paste in.

Next add 1 tsp baking soda. You will notice the sauce start to fizz after you add the baking soda. Baking soda is a acid neutralizer and the fizzing is simply the baking soda doing it's job. It's knocking down the acidity from the tomatoes for better flavor. Thoroughly mix the sauce until all the fizzing stops. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until the meatballs come off the cooker. Make sure to stir occasionally.

When the meatballs come off the smoker dump them into the sauce and stir them in making sure they are all covered in sauce. Put the lid back on and continue to simmer on low heat for at least 15 minutes. If you have chosen to pull your meatballs of the cooker prior to them reaching 165 degrees you should cook them in the sauce until the internal temp of the meatballs reaches 165 degrees due to the pork meat used.

While the meatballs are hot tubbing it in the amazing sauce, get some garlic cheese bread going to serve with your meatballs.

Plate the meatballs up and garnish with some grated cheese and some parsley leaves. What an amazing looking and tasting meal. Enjoy!