Albondigas Con Salsa de Tomate (Meatballs in Tomato Sauce)

This is my grandmothers recipe for Meat balls in tomato sauce. It is a Cuban version of meat balls of course though every cook and culture probably has their own style of doing it. For example my mother's meatballs taste COMPLETELY different in flavor but that will be for another post.

My grandmothers recipe tastes very smokey and hot BUT it is not spicy! Cuban food can be hot but not spicy at all. It get's the smokey hot taste from black pepper and cumin.

Ingredients:
-1 1/4 pounds ground beef
-2 eggs cracked and beaten
-1/2 cup of cracker meal or breadcrumbs, seasoned Italian breadcrumbs also work here
-1 onion minced
-1 bell pepper minced (I use 1/2 green and 1/2 yellow)
-1/2 a head garlic finely minced mashed to a paste (mortar and pestle or garlic press)
-1 cup tomato sauce (you could use canned my grandma for this dish uses already prepared "Ragu Sauce" that comes in a bottle like container sometimes "Mushroom Flavored" or "Meat Sauce" flavor)
-1/2 a bunch of Italian flat leaf parsley only the leaves finely minced (if you hate parsley like my mother use "Cilantro" but when I'm cooking this dish I think parsley goes best with it)
-2 teaspoons cumin
-2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper (I grind whole peppercorns in my mortar with a pestle)
-2-3 teaspoons salt more or less to taste

Directions:
(1)Get the ground beef in a large bowl, add 1/2 of the minced onion, 1/2 of the minced garlic, 1/2 of the minced parsley, some salt, 1 teaspoon pepper, 1 teaspoon cumin, and the cracker meal and eggs. Mix well but don't over mix just enough to incorporate everything. Form the ground beef into medium small ball shape.
(2)In a deep pan heat generous amounts of extra-virgin olive oil, sautee the minced onions and bell pepper on medium high for 6 minutes until translucent and fragrant, add the garlic and sautee 2 more minutes, add the other 1 teaspoon of cumin and pepper and sautee 1-2 minutes.
(3)Now add the tomato sauce and dilute it with some water to desired consistency (about 1 cup water depends how thick sauce is it will cook down a bit and thicken as it continues cooking so keep that in mind), stir well, bring to a boil taste for salt and adjust to taste, add the meatballs in one layer cover for 10 minutes then uncover and flip it to the other side cover and cook another 10 minutes.
(4)Uncover, to test for doneness get one meatball and cut in half if it is not pink in the middle it is done. Now garnish with parsley.
Serve over white rice. My grandmother sometimes use to cook spaghetti (according to package instructions) drain it and toss with the meatballs and tomato sauce, this would be a Cubanized "Spaghetti and Meatballs" ha ha!