For years, even before I became vegan, I've been trying to find that perfect pasta sauce and meatball recipe. I have tried several versions, and none of them quite convinced me that that was the one I wanted to induct into my favorite recipe stash. When I became vegan in 2014, meatballs were out of the question unless it was out of a bag in the frozen aisle. I was indeed dismayed that I would never find a rich tomato sauce recipe or taste delicious meatballs the way I remember, but I don't give up easily, and so, the search continued. While I was foraging for those elusive recipes, I was supplementing with store-bought sauce and frozen vegan meatballs. Not the best, but it worked in the interim. The pasta sauce I found was amazing for store-bought, and the only store-bought pasta sauce I have ever liked. The brand is Rao's. It was as close as I was going to get to homemade sauce and I was pretty happy. Then I got to thinking, I wonder if I could find a recipe online that was close to this jar version? After a few searches, I found that there was indeed, and not only that, I went to Rao's website and low and behold, there was a meatball recipe. Even better, Rao's, established in 1896, is an actual, family-owned, 10 table restaurant, located in New York City, and they have a published cookbook. Miracles do exist. I went straight to Amazon, and two days later, the cookbook was at my doorstep. Rao's is in no way vegan although their website states they do have a selection of vegetarian dishes, but when I went through the cookbook, I realized that I could veganize many of the recipes. Again, miracles do exist.
With cautious excitement, I went about making their sauce recipe which is vegan, and creating a vegan version of their meatballs.
All I can say is perfezione!
In my opinion, this is THE BEST sauce and meatballs recipe I have ever made. Close your eyes while your eating this, and you just might think you're eating in Italy. These two old-world recipes are simply amazing. The sauce is deep, rich, and full of flavor. My house and taste buds were permeated with plum tomatoes and basil, and Italy. This sauce is everything I could have hoped for.
Then there were the meatballs. I just couldn't believe how these turned out. This was the real test for me, because it has been virtually impossible to create an authentic meatball from scratch without using animal meat. But thanks to Beyond Beef, I was able to do it. This plant-based meat held up so well, and created such a great meatball, I was simply amazed. These meatballs were melt-in-your-mouth amazing, moist, and meaty, just like mamma used to make. They held up perfectly, frying in the pan, and became even more rich and decadent after cooking in the sauce. These will definitely get people excited and talking about how great plant meats have become. I hope you enjoy these as much as I do! Now let's get cooking!
For the sauce I followed the recipe exact from the cookbook, except I doubled the recipe. There were more meatballs than sauce, and I wanted more sauce for additional meals. In the link below to Martha Stewart's Rao's sauce recipe, she already doubled the recipe for you.
For the meatballs I followed the recipe exact, except I used 2 lbs Beyond Beef, omitted the eggs and did not use any replacer. The meatballs formed just fine without a binder, and I used a Violife vegan parmesan wedge that I grated. For the breadcrumbs, I bought italian bread stuffing cubes at Whole Foods, put them in a baggie and rolled them with a rolling pin until I had smooth crumbs. I also added 1 Cup of water after the breadcrumbs were added to the mixture, to add moisture. Next time I make this, I'll be making the homemade breadcrumb recipe from the cookbook.
Brands used:
Sauce:
La Valle DOP San Marzano Tomatoes with basil
Meatballs:
Meat: Beyond Beef
Cheese: Violife Parmesean
The sauce recipe can be found here: https://www.marthastewart.com/328007/raos-marinara-sauce
The meatball recipe can be found on Rao's website here: https://www.raos.com/recipes/classic-meatballs/
Due to copyright, I cannot share the cookbook, but these recipes are online, so I can share via the links above. The recipes are identical to the cookbook except Martha Steward double the sauce ingredients for you. I do urge you to buy the cookbook, though. As I mentioned, you can veganize many of these recipes! Enjoy!
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