Spaghetti and Meatballs

Remember when there were only two kinds of pasta- spaghetti and macaroni? These days farfalle and orchiette are household names and the novice cook tosses his/her pasta with broccoli rabe, artichoke hearts, roasted garlic, and pancetta! It may be progress, but still nothing says dinner like a big heaping plate of good, old fashioned spaghetti and meatballs.

Last night was all about spaghetti and meatballs. At the Perfect Wife we did a fundraiser for our local elementary school. Spaghetti and meatballs, salad, and bread for $5. Yeah, five bucks. This evening obviously wasn't about restaurant profits. But how do I make something good, worthy of my name and not spend the whole day in the kitchen? The way I decided to go was to buy the balls, make the sauce. Admittedly, I should have spent time to make my own meatballs, but this was Sunday and I like my one day to spend with my family. So I bought frozen meatballs. They were decent meatballs, but in my homemade sauce they were awesome! I thought it important to spend time on the sauce at least. I made it in about 2 hours, active time being about 10 minutes. Here's what I did, in a smaller quantity. These amounts have not been tested so use your best judgement when following (and I use that term loosely) this recipe.

Quick and Easy Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

6 cloves garlic, peeled
2 onions, peeled and quartered
1 T. dried basil
1 T. dried oregano
1 small can tomato paste (6 oz.?)
2 cans tomato sauce (28 oz.?)
1 can 1/4" diced tomatoes (28 oz.?)
3 T. sugar
kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper (FGBP)

Heat a heavy bottomed pot with extra virgin olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan. Chop the garlic in a food processor. Scrape into the pot. Quickly chop the onions in the food processor. Scrape those into the pot. Let the onions and garlic cook over medium heat for a few minutes until the onions look translucent. Add the tomato sauce and cook for another few minutes, stirring frequently. Add the basil and oregano. Cook for another couple of minutes. Add the tomato sauce and diced tomatoes. Stir and turn the heat to low and simmer for 1/2 hour. Add the sugar, salt and pepper. Simmer for another 20 minutes or so. Check seasoning. Add good quality frozen meatballs and simmer for 1 hour. Serve over spaghetti with lots of good grated cheese.

I do make meatballs from scratch at the restaurant every week. Those meatballs are the recipe of an Italian/Puerto Rican friend of mine. The recipe calls for ground pork and beef, lots of fresh chopped parsley, raisins, breadcrumbs (1 c. per pound of meat), eggs( 1 per pound of meat) and s&p. The balls are formed and then baked in the oven at 400 for 10 or so minutes. Finish cooking the meatballs in the sauce, stirring gently every so often. Raisins, you say? The raisins make the meatballs delicious! I highly recommend putting raisins in your meatballs the next time you make them.

So do a little reminiscing next Sunday. Make a salad with iceberg lettuce, heat up some garlic bread and serve it up with your own spaghetti and meatballs. Heck, buy a Pepperidge Farm layer cake for dessert! The quintessential '70's supper... What a well deserved treat.