Can Italian Tomato Sauce with Meatballs Be Low Fodmap?
Yes it can! The sauce I use today is low fodmap and much lighter than the one I grew up with, which called for browned meats by the wagon load. Now I make a lighter tomato sauce as well as a lightened up meatball mixture. Why? Because too much fat can spell IBS disaster.
Can My Low Fodmap Italian Tomato Sauce and Meatballs Still Tastes Like My Grandmother’s
Of course it can. I still use a combination of beef, and veal, but I eliminate the pork because I can’t be sure how lean it is. I buy my meat from a hideously expensive local Italian food store instead of the supermarket. Why? Because the big guys behind the counter know their stuff and would NEVER sell anything that wasn’t guaranteed delicious.
The meat is everything. When I lived in the South and had to buy supermarket meat that tasted horrible, no matter what I added, it never tasted like my mother’s meatballs. Now my meatballs taste heavenly as proven by the children and grandchildren who request them whenever they visit me.
But back to low fodmap sauce and meatballs. How much does it cost in flavor to change a family recipe that goes back to antiquity in order to make it IBS safe? I would be lying if I didn’t say I miss the sausage, the pork ribs and all the other fatty meats that can go into an Italian Sunday dinner-worthy sauce. However, as far as the flavor of the sauce itself as well as of my meatballs, I can still follow my grandmother’s recipe and it tastes very very close to hers. Honestly.
What Are the Low Fodmap Changes that Make this Sauce and Meatballs IBS Safe?
Here are the changes:
• Eliminate all the meat except for meatballs. If you also want to add sausages, use Italian flavored chicken sausage that is low in fat.
• Use Italian imported plum tomatoes in juice. Make sure no garlic or onion has been added to the tomatoes. Don’t use crushed tomato which often includes garlic or onion.
• Sauté thinly sliced garlic in the olive oil until the oil is nicely infused with garlic flavor. Then remove the garlic. You will have a delicious garlic flavor, but no fodmaps.
• If you also like onion flavor in your sauce, throw in diced up light green stems of either spring onions or scallions. Do NOT include the white dome head.
• Use tomato paste that does not contain garlic or onion.
• If you add wine to your sauce, don’t add too much and make sure the alcohol cooks away before adding your tomato paste and then your imported tomatoes.
•When you choose bread for your meatball mixture, use GF bread if you can’t tolerate wheat, or sour dough bread, if you can’t tolerate Fructan. I never use breadcrumb because breadcrumb makes the meatballs too dense. Instead I make a panade of bread and milk and add that to my meatball mixture. A panade makes your mixture light and fluffy.
• Use egg whites if you can’t tolerate egg yolks.
• Use well aged reggiano parmigiana cheese in your meatballs because aged cheese has no lactose.
• I cut garlic cloves in half and toss them around with my meatball mixture, but then remove them before frying the meatballs.
• Brown your meatballs in a skillet using your own garlic infused oil to brown them. Then the meatballs can be added to the sauce.
In spite of all these changes, your sauce and meatballs will still taste delicious. As my grandfather would say, “Buon appetito.”
Meatball Ingredients:
1 lb. meatball mixture – 1/2 lean ground beef, 1/2 lean ground veal
1/2 loaf of day-old Italian bread (GF or sour dough), crust removed and torn in pieces
1/2 cup or so of lactose free or alternative milk
2 eggs or egg whites
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese, reggiano parmiggiano
1 tbsp fresh Italian parsley, chopped fine
2 peeled cloves of garlic
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup of olive oil for frying
2 quarts of tomato sauce
Directions:
Remove the crust from the bread. Tear it in pieces, place in a bowl and soak in the milk. Squeeze out the milk, discard it, and leave the bread in the bowl. Add the chopped meat, eggs, cheese, garlic cloves, finely chopped parsley, salt and pepper. Remove your rings before you dive in there and mix it all up with your hands. My mother said she used to beat the mixture for several minutes with a heavy fork, but since I don’t know how she did that, I just make sure the mixture is completely mixed together until it is firm enough to shape into a ball the size of a golf ball. Remove the garlic cloves before shaping. I shamelessly save the garlic cloves and use them to make my tomato sauce. No one will know they are “used” garlic cloves and I am sure they are still perfectly fine. Considering what I spend at the grocery store, I have to justify it by saving somewhere.
After shaping all your meatballs, place them on a platter, cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge while you make the sauce, or you can put the entire mixture in the fridge and shape the meatballs after you have made the sauce. This is an especially good idea if the mixture seems too runny to hold a firm shape.
Frying Meatballs
When you are ready to fry them, get out a large, heavy frying pan and heat it on medium high heat. Add the half cup of olive oil or canola oil, if you prefer, until it is shimmering. Add the meatballs to the hot oil, six or seven at a time. Too many will cause the meatballs to steam instead of brown. Keep the heat on medium high unless the meatballs start to burn. Turn down to medium if that occurs. When one side is brown, flip and brown the other side. (Tip: I use a pancake turner and a wooden spoon together to flip each meatball. This prevents the meatball from losing its round shape.) Remove the meatballs when they are browned on both sides and add another six or seven into the pan to brown. Continue until all are browned. Set them aside until you are ready to add them to the sauce. When your sauce has simmered for an hour, add the meatballs and continue to simmer for 30 minutes.
Low Fodmap Italian Tomato Sauce:
Ingredients:
1/4 cup olive oil (I use a mild olive oil for cooking, like Filipo Berrio)
4 peeled cloves of garlic, halved or sliced
2 or 3 large cans imported Italian Tomatoes, whole tomatoes in liquid, like Cento San Marzano, or La Squisita. (Not crushed or pureed)
1 small can imported Italian tomato paste
1 cup red wine (optional)
Meatballs, browned and ready to add
1 lb. sweet Italian flavored chicken sausage, browned and ready to add
1 bunch fresh basil, some chopped and some leaves left whole for the end
1 tsp dried basil (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp sugar if tomatoes are very acid
Whirl the canned tomatoes in a blender just until smooth. Add all the blended tomatoes to the hot tomato paste mixture. Stir well. Add fresh chopped basil, dried basil (if using), chopped parsley, salt, pepper and sugar. Stir well and taste. If too acid, add a bit more sugar. Bring the sauce to a boil stirring all the while. Turn heat down to simmer, top with a lid that is left partly open and simmer for one hour. Check to make sure your simmer is low enough not to cause the sauce to boil too fast and cook down too much. Stir occasionally during those 60 minutes.
After an hour of cooking the sauce, add the meatballs and other meats (if using), a handful of whole basil leaves, and simmer for 30 minutes more, again with the lid partially covering the pot, until the oil comes to the top of the sauce and floats on the top of the sauce. Stir occasionally and make sure the simmer is low enough not to let the sauce cook down too much as it simmers.
*To strain out seeds before cooking, put your tomatoes through a sieve or food mill instead of a blender. This sauce is enough for 2 lbs of pasta and makes two to three quarts.
After your sauce is finished cooking (the oil rises to the top of the pot and appears all around the edges, turn off the heat. You can serve it now or place in the fridge for later. You can also place it in plastic containers, label it and freeze it. When you defrost it, the sauce will taste as delicious as the day it was made.
