Comfort Food

Spaghetti and meatballs perfection.

In light of some recent rather nasty dental work, soft foods have been on the menu. I’m not sure that the dentist meant that I should eat spaghetti and meatballs, but since “ground meat” was on my list of ok foods, why not make the leap?

I love pasta. I don’t actually eat it all that frequently, but I seem to like to write it love letters. Also, after discovering Catelli Smart, I don’t feel nearly as guilty when I eat it. This dish combines two of my great food loves: ground beef and spaghetti. I don’t know if my Alberta childhood contributed to my beef fetish, but I just love the smell of ground beef frying with onions.  Add some salt and I could probably eat the whole pan.

I have recently figured out the perfect meatball. Finely mince half an onion, add a minced garlic clove, mix all that up with some ground sirloin and an egg, some salt and pepper and a few shakes of italian breadcrumbs and you will have a tasty product.  I make the meatballs large enough to just fill my cupped hand when I squeeze it shut. Drop them into a hot pan of oil and mix them around as they fry so that all the sides get nice and brown.

For this dish, I tried a new version of spaghetti sauce. Although I find Giada De Laurentiis to be horribly annoying on tv (she even tops Rachael Ray for me), she does make fabulous Italian food. I used her Marinara Sauce, with the addition of some fresh rosemary and oregano, and the substitution of diced tomatoes (including the juice) instead of crushed. It made the sauce a little chunkier and richer.

To finish, I threw the meatballs in the sauce and tossed the cooked spaghetti in with it all. Could this get more comforting?