the moderate epicurean

a quest for measured pleasure...

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Turns out this is one of those rare Sundays that I won't be cooking. Weird, huh? I love to cook on Sundays, especially in the fall, oooh: cool air + time = soup or stew or roast or bread or vegetables or, or, or... But not today, man, our fridge is bursting with tasties, a food bomb ready to explode, BAM! Don't worry, we'll defuse carefully, a meatball here, some clam chowder there (I had a meatball for breakfast, in fact, yum).

Why so much food? Wellll, turns out I was solo for dinner on both Thursday and Friday nights, so the big ol' pot of Manhattan Clam Chowder I made on Thursday is still pretty big, and the shrimp cocktail I made on Friday is still untouched by John. And then last night we had Suz, The Coreman, Vivian, and Sullivan over for a Break-from-Unpacking Spaghetti Dinner (recipe posted in comments, below), with meatballs and garlic bread and salad and Cake-Eater Chocolate Cake. Uff. One of the more filling meals I've made in awhile, although sometimes a homemade meatball really hits the spot, you know? Kind of like a matzo ball. Random... Anyhow, we have lots of meatballs, and pasta, and bread, and cake, and whipped cream...oh my, you get the picture.

Excess! Bursting! No cooking! And we'll enjoy every bite...

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1 Comments:

At 10:41 AM, Blogger Stephanie said...

Classic Spaghetti and Meatballs in Tomato Sauce
Adapted from The Doubleday Cookbook by Anderson & Hanna
Serves 4-6

Sauce
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 small onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tsp. dried oregano
2 tsp. dried basil
1-15 oz can tomato sauce
1-6 oz. can tomato paste
1 ½ cups water
1 tsp. salt
few grinds of black pepper
1 tsp. sugar

Meatballs
1 pound ground beef or meatloaf mix (1/3 each ground pork, veal, beef)
½ small onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup soft white bread crumbs
¼ c. milk
1 egg, beaten
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. salt
few grinds of black pepper

Pasta
1 lb. spaghetti

For sauce:
In a Dutch oven, sauté onion over medium-low heat until softened, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and dried herbs and sauté until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Stir in tomato sauce, paste, water, salt, pepper, and sugar. Simmer, covered, for 30 minutes.

For meatballs:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, gently mix ground meat, onion, and garlic. In a small bowl, stir together bread crumbs, milk, egg, Worcestershire, salt, and pepper. Pour over meat mixture and stir gently to combine. Shape into 1-inch meatballs and place on a lightly oiled (nonstick sprayed) baking sheet, evenly spaced, as you go. Bake for 10 minutes, turn the meatballs, then bake for another 10 minutes. Transfer meatballs into the sauce, cover, and simmer for another 15 minutes.

As meatballs and sauce simmer, cook pasta according to package directions. Serve with freshly grated Parmesan, if you like.

 

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