Garden Vegetable Tomato Sauce and Meatballs

I am a huge fan of tomato sauces.  I think it stems from my childhood as my Dad makes the best spaghetti sauce on the planet.  I have made many renditions, as I find it an easily manipulated dish.  It can be paleo, vegan...whatever.  It truly is, in my opinion, the most versatile sauce out there.  Here is a little something I put together tonight.

Ingredients:

3 Small Eggplants (cut into strips lengthwise the laterally across the strips to make chunks)
2 Small Zucchini (Cut into rounds)
1 Large Onion (Diced)
6 Cloves of Garlic (Minced)
1 Lb Ground Beef Meatballs*
1 Large Can Muir Glen Organic Fire Roasted Crushed Tomatoes
1 Small Can Olives (Green, Black, Kalamata...whatever you like.  Just be sure they are drained and pitted, you could also use sliced if you prefer).
3 TBS Coconut Oil (I recently purchased Nutiva...OMG SO GOOD!!!)
Sea Salt (use only a sprinkle, seriously no more than 1/2 tsp...the olives add plenty of saltiness)
Cracked Black Pepper
Cayenne Pepper
Paprika
Sage
Marjoram
Cloves
Rosemary

NOTE:  On the spices, I don't measure.  I eyeball it.  While I know not everyone cooks this way, just give a liberal (probably close to 1TBS per spice except salt) seasoning.  I will try to be more cognizant of this in the future and give measurements. 

*If you make your own meatballs, use a lean ground beef, 1 egg white (to bind), a bit of ground cloves, garlic powder, black pepper and cayenne pepper.  Roll into small meatballs and set aside.


Method:

In a large Dutch oven over Med Heat place the 3 TBS Coconut Oil, garlic, and onion.

Season with salt, black pepper, cayenne, and paprika.  Combine.  Allow to cook about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally and making sure you don't burn the garlic.

While the onion mixture is cooking, slice the eggplant into length-wise strips then cut across the strips laterally; cut the zucchini into rounds.

After you cut them like this, cut them width-wise to make chunks.

Add the zucchini and eggplant to the onion mixture.

Season with sage, marjoram, and rosemary.  Combine.

If you have pre-made meatballs, sprinkle them with ground cloves.  If you are making your own, please see above.

Add the meatballs to the mixture.  Cover and allow to cook on Medium for a few minutes (this allows them to take form and not fall apart).

After about 3 minutes, uncover, add the crushed tomatoes and the olives.  Carefully combine.

Recover the pot, turn it up to Med-Hi and allow to cook for 10 minutes.

Check in with the sauce at this point and give it a good gentle stir; make sure it is not sticking to bottom.

Take one meatball out and cut it open to see how cooked it is.

Mine took a total of 25 minutes to cook completely, but I had mine on Medium for most of that time.

If the meatballs are cooked to your liking, then you are ready to eat.  If not, depending on how rare the meat it, give it another 5-10 minutes, but keep an eye on it to make sure the sauce is not burning.

This dish is a little more complex than many of my other recipes, but it is really delicious and worth the fuss.


!!!You could also change this up by adding in extra veggies like mushrooms, sliced carrots, green beans...whatever you can think of!