The story: After a long day of going around town, going to the beach among other places, we were dead tired and felt like making something simple. Now I will admit that our version of simple cooking is really not what others might consider it. My father often says that I can never leave anything alone and just eat it, but then what foodie can? Simple in this case was that we used some easily obtained, semi-premade foods and jazzed them up a bit. The night previous to us making this dish we had seen one of those bobby flay cooking throw downs and it really put us in the mood for spaghetti and meatballs. As I am a vegetarian, its not quite the same but we made do.
A quick side note effected our desire for this dish. It was a cool day out, peaking in the low fifties, and quite windy. As it might in others, it creating a desire for something hot and filling, reminding us of our childhoods.
The dish: Spaghetti and "meat"balls with romaine salad and spiced croûtons
*note: several of the items that will be listed are pre-made brand name items. (not routine for us, but like I said, we were hungry)
Spaghetti and "Meat"balls
1/2 pound of angel hair pasta
18 oz. of DiNicola spicy marina sauce
1/4 cup of Bartunura Moscato wine
1/4 cup of part skim ricotta cheese
~2 tsp of garlic powder
3/4-1 cup of morningstar farm veggie ground
4-5 morningstar farm sausage links
3 dashes of grated Parmesan
Romaine salad
1 head of fresh romaine lettuce
1 med. carrot
1/2 -1 cup of red cabbage
Spiced croûtons
1/2 a large loaf of fresh baked Italian bread (ours was 4-5 days old, so already a bit hard)
1/4 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp of Za'atar (an Israeli/Med. spice mix containing hyssop)
1 tsp of mixed Italian herbs
1/4-1/3 cup of virgin olive oil
As usual, start the water for the pasta. While you're waiting for the water to boil, nows a good time to start on the croûtons. Before starting the bread, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Slice up the bread and cut up the slices into smaller pieces. I find that the optimum size for them seems to be roughly about half again the size of a die (lol, singular for dice). When all the bread is cut up, toss them into a bowl. Pour the olive oil on top, and then quickly start tossing the bread to help the oil spread evenly. Then simply toss in all the spices and toss again, coating the bread. Foil up a pan and lightly spray with oil. Dump the bread crumbs onto the pan and put in the oven. Hopefully the water is boiling by this point, so add the pasta.
Onto the sauce. Take a sauce pan, and heat up a little oil in it, spray oil works just fine. Toss in the frozen veggie ground and let it heat up in the pan at a high flame. When defrosted add the wine and stir, lowering the heat a bit. Now is the time to add the tomato sauce. Let the sauce heat up a bit, and then mix in the ricotta. Microwave the sausage links for about a minute or so, chop roughly and then add to the sauce. Lower the heat and let the sauce simmer.
Nows a good time to check to see if the pasta is done. When the pasta has reached the texture that you like, drain the pasta. When the pasta is properly drained, put the pasta in the pan with the sauce and mix liberally. Plate the salad and the pasta, dash lightly with Parmesan cheese, and Viola, a fine meal after long chilly day!
