I'm cooking with my "popo" Grandma. Today she is my "nonna"
For those of you who don't know, my mother is Chinese and my father is Italian. So I have always grown up around those two cultures.
I was raised by my Chinese grandma and she knows a thing or two about Italian food.
Today we make Spaghetti and Meatballs, a classic staple in the Italian American household.
The sauce is important.
Some Italians call it "Gravy" or the "Sauce." The choice is yours. I say sauce.
The recipe below (rough measurements):
Sauce:
1 can of crushed tomatoes (we use the Scalfani brand)
1 can of water (use the same sauce can)
2 garlic cloves
1/2 small onion
1 tbsp sugar (we used cane sugar, no big deal if you don't have that)
Black pepper
2 tbsp tomato paste
Chili flakes to taste
olive oil
Meatballs:
About 1.5 lbs ground sirloin beef
1 tsp soy sauce
1 egg
3 tbsp breadcrumbs
2 tbsp pecorino or parmesan cheese
1 tsp corn starch
A quarter of 1 white onion
Pine nuts (optional)
Black pepper
Pasta
As much as you want and choose your shape.
Procedure:
For the sauce, first, add some olive oil to the pan and brown the garlic and onions to flavor the sauce. Then add the can of crushed tomatoes, with the sugar, black pepper, and water. Cook on medium heat for roughly 20min. After 20min add the tomato paste and chili flake and cook for another 10-15min.
Meanwhile, make the meatballs, mix all the ingredients, add as little or as much as you want. Then form them into balls and put them in the oven at 350 F for 30min. You can pan-fry them as well.
After 30 min, take the meatballs out of the oven and add it to the sauce. (We also added 4-5 links of Italian sausage). Let the meat cook in the sauce for 20min. This is the key! All the flavors marry together. Then you have the finished sauce. Keep everything on medium heat. Keep in mind if you cook the sauce longer, the flavors get more concentrated. Also, be sure to adjust for salt at the end of cooking. Do not add so much salt in the beginning because it will get too concentrated. In total, you should cook the sauce for about 1 hour. This is another recipe that you really can't mess up. (That's what I like)
Cook the pasta, read the package for the ideal cooking time.
Just throw everything together!
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22 июл 2024
