Spaghetti made by meee

_pi3_

I'm not saying this is calorie friendly but this is my recipe for from-scratch spaghetti and meatballs. I'm going to add notes in italics. It's a pretty versatile recipe but this is the way I typically do it.

Sauce
6-7 ripe tomatoes
6 oz tomato paste
Half a yellow onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
6-8 oz red wine
1/3 cup of balsamic vinegar
Half a tablespoon of dried oregano, basil and thyme.
(Bay leaves optional)

Meatballs
1 lb of ground chicken or ground beef
1 cup of defrosted spinach leaves
1/2 cup of plain bread crumbs or panko crumbs
1 egg
1/2 cup of shredded mozzarella cheese
(6 splashes of worstershire, if using beef instead of chicken, optional)

Pre-prep for sauce

In a pot set water to boil. On the top of the tomato, Idk what they're called but I call them scabs, stick a knife a little in and pull that thing out. On the other end of the tomato you'll see a little dot. Slit an X through it. Don't go too deep or you'll waterlog your tomatoes. Once the waters boiling add tomatoes for about 20 seconds. This will give you just enough time to make an ice bath. Once the skin starts to peel scoop them out and shock in the water bath. Act quickly because you're still in danger of your tomatoes sucking up water. Peel the skins off the tomatoes one by one and place in your blender. Blend til smooth.

Got that? Kay, now let's get to the recipe!

Pour 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil to sauce pan on medium-high heat. Add diced onions and minced garlic. Stir til translucent but not browned, about 3 minutes. Add tomato liquid and stir. After 5 minutes, stir in tomato paste. Cover. After 5 minutes uncover and stir. Cover for 10 minutes.

I usually take a good 20 minutes of stirring before I add the tomato paste to help break up the bonds of the tomato juice. I just tried to quicken it up in the written recipe. I don't think it makes much of a difference if you do it one way or the other though.

Heat your oven to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl combine ground chicken (or beef), defrosted spinach leaves, bread crumbs and egg and shredded mozzarella [if using beef for the meatballs add a few dashes of worschteshire sauce or omit altogether]. Combine with hands. Place in a greased glass baking dish and cover, put in oven 30-40 minutes or until cooked through.

Once the meatballs are in the oven, stir sauce and add your dry herbs of dried oregano, basil and thyme. Equal amounts of about a half a tablespoon or to taste. Stir your glass of wine and Balsamic vinegar. Cover, stirring occasionally.

Once the meatballs are cooked through, start the water for your spaghetti. Uncover meatballs and continue cooking for 10-20 minutes or until browned on top. Stir sauce.

After 10-20 minutes pot of water should be boiling. Add spaghetti noodles. Remove meatballs from oven and carefully put them in the sauce. Turn down from a simmer to the low setting.

Cook spaghetti to Al dente or till the mouth feel is desirable to you.

I use whole grain noodles and Mario Batale told me to cook a minute less than package directions, if using regular noodles cook to full package directions.

Serve.

I may have missed something but questions are welcome but I'm pretty sure that's how I did it. I would use my chicken meatballs version of this recipe cause they're really pretty. Bf demanded beef meatballs last night so when ever I make my chicken meatballs I'll post a pic.

You can also dust the top of the meatballs of grated Parmesan before baking.

This recipe might seem more trouble than it's worth but I think it might be lower in sodium so there's that. I strive to get low sodium ingredients as much as humanly possible. There's also the joy of making something from scratch.