5 Days 5 Lunches: Spaghetti & Meatballs

Growing up as an Iranian American kid in the 90’s, my experience with spaghetti was my mom’s homemade spaghetti meat sauce and pasta. But let me preface this. Her spaghetti was more like “meat-ghetti” as my brother affectionately calls it. It was basically tomato paste, some spices (mostly tumeric & cumin, *don’t ask*), onions and ground beef. She would then mix this with cooked dry pasta. It did the job and growing up as little fatsos we loved it. My brother would put yogurt on it to really push home that we were not Italians but Iranian Americans (we put yogurt on everything).

I love Italian food, but I hate getting it out. Why? Because it’s so popular, I feel there are many pretenders. Many proclaim to be authentic,  but their food never hits home or impresses. I always feel like after I have eaten out, that I could’ve made the food myself.

I make my sauce from scratch and I make pork sausage meat balls. I didn’t attempt to make homemade pasta, that’s for another day. I used linguine from La Pasta.

Recipe

Ingredients

1 pound of loose Pork Sausage

6 Italian Sweet Sausage Links

4 Tomatoes

4 Cloves of Crushed Roasted Garlic

1 Tbsp. Oregano

1 Tbsp. Parsley Flakes

1 Tbsp. Garlic Powder

1 Tbsp. Onion Powder

2 Tbsp. Italian Seasoning Mix (Thyme, Rosemary, Oregano, Coriander, and Basil)

1/2 White Onion Diced

Marsala Wine

2 Tbsp. Parmesan Cheese

4 Cups Chicken Broth

1 Package of Pasta

Method

Mix together the loose pork sausage, the parsley flakes, onion powder, and garlic powder. Form them into little meatballs. Place them in a circle in your frying pan and put half of your diced onions in the middle. Place your sausage links around the meatballs on the outside edge of the pan. Allow them all to brown. As they begin to brown all over add the Marsala cooking wine to deglaze your pan. Now put your meatballs & sausage in the oven at 275F. At the same time you are putting your meatballs into the oven, put your head of garlic into the oven and allow them to cook more.

Pull the garlic out once it is soft to the touch. Pull the sausage and meatballs out after 20 minutes.

Dice up the sausage links so you can add it to the sauce later.

Score the tomato into a cross along the bottom of your tomatoes. Place in boiling water and allow the skin to peel off. Once it has peeled off, remove it from the boiling water and remove the skin.

Add the rest of your onions and garlic to your sauce pot. Allow them to brown slightly and add your tomatoes. Cook the tomatoes and onions down, to build some flavor. Add all of your remaining spices into the sauce mixture. 

Now add your sausage and meatballs. Add your chicken broth. Add your cheese to the sauce and stir in.

Allow this all to simmer for 2 to 3 hours. Cook up some pasta in some salted boiling water. Enjoy!