Olimpia’s Spare Ribs and Meat­balls in Toma­to Sauce

(serves 10 easily)

2 tbsps olive oil
24 pork spare ribs
4 cloves gar­lic, minced
1 small white onion, minced
1 cup red wine
1 large can toma­to sauce
1 large can peeled plum tomatoes

for meat­balls:
1 1/2 lbs ground pork
3 eggs
2/3 cups breadcrumbs
1 tbsp Ital­ian seasoning

So here’s what I did. Fol­low­ing Olimpia’s instruc­tions, I heat­ed the olive oil in a heavy, very large pot and browned the ribs all over, on all sides. Then I added the gar­lic, onion and red wine and sim­mered, uncov­ered, for 5 min­utes. Then I added all the toma­to bits and cov­ered the pot and sim­mered, NO MORE than a sim­mer, for 3 hours.

Then I mixed all the meat­ball ingre­di­ents as you would a dough (take off your rings) until it was nice and mixed, clean and con­sis­tent through­out. Form into medi­um balls (I think my mix­ture made about 15), and drop one by one into the toma­to sauce, filled with ribs. Don’t try to stir yet. Cov­er the pot and sim­mer for half an hour, at which point the meat­balls will be cooked enough for you to stir the pot. Stir it up gen­tly, mix­ing up the ribs and the meat­balls. The whole thing can sit nice­ly, cov­ered, indef­i­nite­ly until dinner.