Everyone makes spaghetti their own way. Here's ours. We've changed and perfected this over the past twelve years, and as usual, we're striving for a balance between nutritious, tasty, thrifty, and efficient. My dear Italian friend is appalled by the fact that I use canned tomatoes and don't simmer this for hours, but like I said, we're aiming for tasty and efficient :-)
Our Spaghetti
1 package frozen Italian-style meatballs -- cooked according to package
1 lb. Spaghetti -- cooked according to package
1 can Spaghetti sauce -- any variety
1 can Tomato paste
1 can Italian Stewed tomatoes OR Italian diced tomatoes
1 can Mushrooms -- drained
1 cup Onion -- chopped OR 2 cloves garlic, minced (or both)
Oil
Put meatballs in oven. Saute onion/garlic in oil. Add sauce, paste, tomatoes, and mushrooms. Heat to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer until pasta is done. Add meatballs to sauce. Serve.
Nonsense! Nothing wrong with canned tomatoes! Use them all the time for chicken cacciatore, etc. They just don't belong in spaghetti sauce. LOL! Cooking for longer time periods though... yeah, I'm all over that because I I think I just like stronger, settled flavors that only come with long cooking.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I meant that I use it for spaghetti sauce :-)
DeleteSome time I'll make this when I have a couple of hours to let it simmer and see if I can taste a difference, using the same ingredients.
(hah! never checked "notify me," LOL) Sometimes, when my mom would make a pot of spaghetti sauce, we wouldn't even eat it the first night. She'd let it refrigerate overnight, and we'd have it the next day, because the flavors would continue to deepen while it sat.
DeleteWithout the mushrooms, I would totally eat this, though. Sounds good.
I like to let chocolate-chip cookie dough sit overnight in the fridge because the cell walls of the proteins in the eggs break down over time and absorb the sugar better, and the cookies will get that crispy-on-the-edges-but-soft-in-the-center thing going on. So I can see that a similar thing would happen with spaghetti sauce.
DeleteWe tend to have lots of this left over, so then the sauce sits in the fridge and gets used up over time, which I assume does deepen the flavors.