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| the meatballs in question. |
I make sauce pretty regularly. What can I say, it's part of my culture, and it makes for a super simple dinner. My usual route is to make a pot of sauce on Sunday and then use it during the following week to make quick dinners. Sometimes it's as easy as frying an egg and then topping baby spinach with the eggs and sauce. Other times I'll sauté shrimp to top off my spinach and sauce deal, and when there's just a little bit left, throw it in a frying pan with some hot italian sausage, bell peppers, and onions, and you have one of my favorite meals in the world! Today is my first time making spaghetti (squash) and meatballs, and oh man, it is so damn good I had to share the recipe!
First off, there's no reason to ever buy a jar of pasta sauce. It's so easy to make and this way you don't end up with random ingredients and preservatives that are usually in the jarred variety! Also, making a pot of sauce takes just about as long as heating up a jar of sauce, for what it's worth, so you're not really saving any time with that Prego, my friend.
As for meatballs, this is usually something I leave to my dad, but I have quite a bit of ground beef in my freezer (and my neighbor was cooking something that when filtered through my floors smelled like meatballs and gave me a craving), so I figured I'd give it a go. My dad usually uses breadcrumbs in his, but since I don't really use breadcrumbs for anything else in my life, I couldn't justify buying a whole pack and letting it go to waste, so I decided to see how quinoa would work instead and they came out really well.
I've also never made spaghetti squash before, so this was an all around experimental dinner that ended up actually turning out great (you never know, sometimes these things are a total fail.)!
I ended up with about four servings with a few extra meatballs on the side, which is good, because if you're anything like me, you'll eat like four (or more) of them before you're even done making dinner. I'm pretty sure this is why you never see Nana sit down to eat with the rest of the family, she's so full from testing everything while she cooks.. I mean, you have to make sure it's safe, right?
Step one: Meatballs! (makes about 16)
What you'll need:
1lb ground beef (I used 95% lean, you could also sub turkey or chicken)
1 egg
1/4 cup fresh grated pecorino romano cheese (this is a staple in my house, but if you're more of a parmesan person, that will work just fine)
1 cup cooked quinoa
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp olive oil (for the pan)
salt and pepper (I also added crushed red pepper)
- Preheat oven to 400F
- mix all your ingredients up really well in a big bowl
- use a tablespoon (the actual spoon not the measuring spoon kind) to form balls and space them evenly on a lightly oiled baking sheet
- bake for 15 minutes, and then turn them over and bake for another 15. These are when mine were done, but crack one open just in case, they might need more time depending on how big you make them.
Step two: Sauce
What you'll need:
1 large can of crushed tomatoes (28oz)
1 clove of garlic, crushed
1 tbsp olive oil or butter (I use butter, my dad uses olive oil, do what you want)
salt and pepper
some people use basil and oregano and all that, but I never have it around so I just don't bother.
- in a small sauce pot heat up your olive oil and garlic 'til it smells all garlicky and awesome.
- dump in your tomatoes and stir
- season with salt and pepper to taste
- cook on medium-high heat until it's bubbling and then turn down the heat a bit and cover.
- simmer 'til you're ready to use it. Some people say that the longer you cook it the less acidic it will be, but I don't have the patience to cook sauce all day, so I end up using it after about 20 minutes and it's fine.
- I did this while my meatballs were baking.
Step three: Spaghetti Squash
What you'll need:
1 large spaghetti sqaush
1 tsp of olive oil (for the pan)
salt
Like I said, I've never made this before, so I just kind of went for it. I took the squash and cut it in half, then dug out all the seeds and stuff. Then I cut it into 1" slices, put it on a lightly oiled baking sheet, and roasted it at 400F until it seemed "done". After it cooled a bit I used my hands to break apart the little spaghetti noodle things into a bowl.
Once my meatballs had cooled I added them to the sauce so they could get a nice coating, and then topped my spaghetti squash with a few meatballs, some more sauce, and some freshly grated romano cheese!
Enjoy!
Nutrition Facts:
Serving size - 1.5 cups of squash, 1/2 cup of sauce, and 3 meatballs
Calories: 290
Fat: 11.5g
Carbohydrates: 21.4g
Protein: 24.3g
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