When cooking for a team, scout troop or other group of hungry youngsters, nothing beats spaghetti and meatballs.
Here's a recipe that's easy, is sure to please everyone, and even keeps your kitchen clean! The sauce is baked in a roasting pan in the oven, so there’s no splattering and no stovetop mess.
For a complete team pasta dinner, just add garlic bread, salad and dessert.
Menu
Tossed Salad
Spaghetti & Meatballs
Garlic Bread
Meatballs and Sauce
Makes approximately 75 meatballs and enough sauce for 4 pounds of spaghetti.
- 3 pounds ground beef
- 4 cups Italian seasoned bread crumbs
- 2 cups milk
- 6 beaten eggs
- 1 ½ cups Parmesan cheese
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
Mix all ingredients thoroughly. Form into 1-1½-inch balls and place in the bottom of two lightly oiled roasting pans. Bake, covered, in a 300 degree oven for 1 hour, turning meatballs after 30 minutes. Remove from oven and drain grease. Get ready to add the sauce.
Next, make the sauce.
- 4 29-ounce cans tomato sauce
- 4 29-ounce cans tomato puree
- 4 29-ounce cans crushed tomatoes
- ¾ cups water
- ¾ teaspoon basil
- ¾ teaspoon oregano
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 tablespoons parmesan cheese
- ¾ teaspoon sugar
- 1 bay leaf
- ¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
Mix all ingredients together and pour over meatballs in roasting pans and place in oven. Cover and bake at 350 degrees, for 1-1½ hours. Remove lid, reduce head to 275 degrees and cook for an additional 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Garlic Bread for a Crowd
- 5 loaves Italian bread
- Butter, softened
- Garlic powder
- Parsley flakes
- Oregano
- Basil
Slice bread loaves in half lengthwise. Spread lightly with butter. Sprinkle generously with garlic powder. Sprinkle lightly with parsley, oregano and basil. Place two halves back together and wrap in aluminum foil. Bake for 15-30 minutes. Remove from foil and cut into thick slices.
Tips:
- For serving ease, cook the pasta al dente ahead of time. Drain, rinse, toss with a little bit of cooking oil and store in a Ziplock bag. Just before serving time, boil water in a large pot with a steamer insert. With water at a slow simmering boil, place the precooked spaghetti into the pot’s steamer insert and allow it to finish cooking. Lift out the steamer insert, drain and serve. Be careful not to overdo the cooking oil. You only need a tiny bit to keep it from sticking while being stored. If you add too much, your spaghetti will be too slippery.
- To serve tossed salad to a crowd, chop lettuce smaller than you normally would, add grated carrots, seeded and diced cucumbers, and black olives. Toss with a bottled Italian salad dressing. (Be careful not to saturate the salad with dressing.) Italian dressing is a crowd pleaser and having the salad already “dressed” makes buffet line serving easy.
- For added flavor to the sauce, put some Italian sausage in with the meatballs and serve it as another meat option.
For more crowd pleasing recipes, see:
