Sean D. Francis

That is One (or Seven) Spicy Meatball(s)

Posted on 08 June 2009

I wish I could take credit for this, but really it came to me one day sitting around doing absolutely nothing but watching cooking shows on TV.  Alton Brown did a show on Spaghetti and Meatballs and America’s Test Kitchen had an episode on spaghetti sauce.  I was fated to make this.

As much as I enjoy cooking, I sometimes focus too much on high end entrees and not enough about the basics.  Spaghetti sauce is one of those tried and true basics that every cook needs to be able to make.    Fundamentally, spaghetti sauce really is too easy to make to rely upon a jar.  America’s Test Kitchen offered up the idea of using a crockpot to cook the sauce.  I thought this was a brilliant idea because I tend to carbonize sauces that need to simmer for hours.

I won’t go into the actual recipe I used since this is one of those things that should be a personal expression of taste.  I am a garlic and red pepper kind of guy.  You may be a basil and oregeno sort of person.  I do recommend keeping the sauce simple because you can always add in zucchini, peppers, and meat when you want them at a later point in the sauce making.

That brings me to the second part of this meal.  Meatballs.  I am not a meatball maker.  I just don’t think about them.  I used a pound of hamburger, added in two cloves of minced garlic, shallots, salt, pepper, and ‘Italian Seasonings’ (because I’m cheap and if I’m buying dried crappy spices, I’m not buying the ‘Italian’ spices separate when I can buy them together.)  I formed seven two-inch meatballs from the pound of meat, fried them on all sides and finished them in the oven.

Once they where finished I pulled them, put two ladles of my homemade sauce over them, heated the sauce on the stovetop and then poured it all over my spaghetti.  This whole meal, not including the making of the sauce took only about thirty minutes.  Spending the time on the weekend making a large batch of sauce is worth it for the quick meal opportunities in the week.