| 1 | Combine the sauce ingredients and bring to a boil while preparing the meatballs. |
| 2 | Mix all meatball ingredients. |
| 3 | It is easiest to do this with your hands. |
| 4 | Form into walnut-sized balls. |
| 5 | Drop the meatballs into boiling sauce. |
| 6 | If the sauce is not boiling, the meatballs will fall to pieces. |
| 7 | Simmer gently for about an hour. |
| 8 | If you are making the sauce to eat right away, you will probably want to skim the grease that cooks out of the sausage periodically. |
| 9 | If you are making this ahead, the grease will congeal when it sits overnight in the refrigerator, and you can remove it easily then. |
| 10 | Check for salt. |
| 11 | Depending on the brands of sausage and tomatoes you use, you may not need any. |
| 12 | If you need to add salt, be sparing. |
| 13 | Boil the pasta. |
| 14 | Pour the sauce and meatballs over it and serve with grated parmesan, or combine and reheat in a casserole, sprinkled with parmesan. |
| 15 | Notes: * simple meatballs in herb and garlic tomato sauce -- i"ve been making this recipe since i was about 10 years old, and i don"t remember where we got it. |
| 16 | It"s easy and very good, though. |
| 17 | Yield: serves 4-* this is fine made a day ahead. |
| 18 | Chilling it gives you a chance to remove the grease that cooks out of the sausage. |
| 19 | : difficulty: easy. |
| 20 | : time: 15 minutes preparation, 1 hour cooking. |
| 21 | : precision: no need to measure. |
| 22 | : vicki o"day : hewlett-packard laboratories, palo alto ca : hplabs!oday : |
