We boxed up the cookbook that has the traditional meatball recipe and haven't unpacked it. We looked online and put together four or five recipes with what we remembered of the traditional one. It has really hardly come out this good half the years, and of course the hybrid recipe exists nowhere, so here it is:
Meatballs and sauce:
2lbs 80/20 ground beef
48oz canned diced tomatoes
2 medium yellow onions
6oz tomato paste
1/2c milk made of half and half and water
1/2 c breadcrumbs
2oz parmesan
1 egg
5 garlic cloves
1 tbsp rosemary
scant tablespoon basil and oregano
tsp red pepper flakes
Pasta:
Fusilli or spaghetti
Chop onions somewhat finely. Hydrate breadcrumbs with milk (made of half and half and water). Combine onions, breadcrumb mixture, grated parmesan, and egg, then incorporate beef. Add seasonings. Form mixture into small handfuls (in between golf ball and tennis ball size) and place one layer in bottom of crockpot. Alternate layers of canned diced tomato with meatballs. Add tomato paste and garlic as you go. Set crockpot on "low" for 6 hours. Boil pasta to al dente.
These are the spices. Rosemary is kind of the star.
Also, the tomatoes did not really cook down into a sauce, there was a ton of clearish liquid, but it did taste good. So one idea is to somehow know how to make a tomato sauce thick for next year. It is possible that we usually drain the tomatoes?
