Week 34 - Italian Spaghetti with Meatballs

I seem quite insistent on making spaghetti and meatballs. Quite honestly, I don't even know if I like meatballs so why is there such an urge to perfect the meatball?

MEATBALLS
• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1 cup fresh bread crumbs
• 1 tablespoon dried parsley
• 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 egg, beaten
SAUCE
• 3/4 cup chopped onion
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1(28 ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes
• 1(28 ounce) can diced tomatoes
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 3/4 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

This was anything but a perfect attempt. My biggest mistake was thinking that I could use brownberry stuffing mix for the bread crumbs. That just ruined the meatballs. I'm fairly certain that Brownberry was attempting to encapsulate the flavor of "stale" in their breading. So I can't be completely to blame for the failure of this attempt.

The original recipe called for two cans of whole peeled tomatoes. I substituted a can of diced tomatoes instead. I don't know if this was a good or bad thing. Overall, I feel like there needed to be a true tomato sauce or crushed tomatoes in there somewhere. My substitution probably wasn't ideal but it strikes me as being better than what the original recipe called for.

I have not given up on the meatball yet. I will try making it with fresh bread crumbs next time. The recipe itself has potential. However, I struggled eating the leftovers from this concoction. I threw over half of it out. So as a result, I can only rate my rendition at a 4.5 out of 10 stars.