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[Choop]

Recipes for spaghetti vary from person to person, and even from serving to serving. Most of you have at least one spaghetti recipe, I'm sure, and I for one would love to share. I'll start with one I just invented tonight, and I'm happy as a clam right now.

Chooperific Marinara and Meatballs
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Cooking time: 75 minutes
Prep time: 20 minutes
Serves: probably 8? It was just the two of us, and we have LOADS left.
For any brand or breed name, feel free to substitute generic.
Divide the recipe at your own peril.

-=The Marinara=-
28 oz. San Marzano tomatoes, peeled (Large can, in juice)
12 oz. artichoke hearts, roughly chopped (normal can)
1 pint Portabella mushrooms, sliced (small grocery pack)
3/4 medium onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1 cup dry white wine*

-=The Meatballs=-
1 1/2 lb. ground pork (substitute beef or soysage, pertaining to diet, if you must)
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 egg
1/4 cup parmesan
1/2 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp. oregano
1/4 tsp. cinnamon

-=Utility=-
Olive oil
Salt, pepper
Wooden spoon
2 tablespoons
Large sauce pan
Large heavy skillet
The rest of the wine

-=The Procedure=-
Cover the bottom of a large sauce pan in olive oil and warm over medium-high. Add the onion, stirring occasionally. After three to four minutes, add the garlic, stirring with the same frequency. As soon as the onion begins to brown, add the tomatoes and break them up with a spoon. Add the artichoke and mushrooms and reduce the heat to medium-low. When much of the liquid is absorbed by the mushroom, add the wine and reduce to very low heat. Add salt and pepper, however much feels appropriate. Stir every ten to fifteen minutes (don't worry, it won't stick or anything).

While the sauce is simmering, combine all meatball ingredients in a large bowl and mash into a smooth pork gleefulness using your hands. Make absolutely certain the ingredients are incorporated evenly throughout the meat. It's not at all unlike making a meatloaf until this point. Take two tablespoons and shape meatballs out of this big lump, as evely sized as you can. When all of your balls have shape, cover the bottom of the skillet in olive oil and warm over high heat. Before the oil reaches its smoking point, reduce the heat to medium and add the meatballs, turning each once when each begins to turn gray on the top, and again at the same interval to guarantee that the meat is cooked through. THIS IS RIDICULOUSLY IMPORTANT. When each is done, remove to a paper towel-lined surface, then cover all with another layer of paper towel, and trim or discard any that have burned.

The sauce should simmer until at least an hour has passed, at which point you should begin your pasta water. Don't salt it until it's already boiling (it will boil fastest with a lid). After you salt the water, put the meatballs into the marinara, and then put your noodles in the water. Timing is really everything at this stage. Well, not really - it just feels kind of neat to say that. Cook the pasta to al dente, drain, and serve a modest amount, with no more than four meatballs per person. Each eater will probably enjoy a glass of the same dry white wine**.

The result should be a fresh, light sauce with tender, flavorful, and quite
filling meatballs. Seriously, I only had like three and I'm all kinds of bloated right about now. Go to town!


*If you wouldn't drink it, don't cook with it.
** See above.

[AugustWest]

We've had very good luck broiling our meatballs.  It's much easier, they seem to cook very evenly and the grease drains right out through the broiling pan.  Wa-la, to quote the less literate among us.

[slink]

I tend to throw something together involving, along with the basics of onion, garlic, tomatoe's (plus some tinned to add moisture for sauce/i-ness), good beef mince sealed after adding the onion and garlic, and pancetta.

I know traditionally Bolognese is made with pork mince, but I prefer beef, but like the pancetta to add the other flavour.

[AlohaDawg]

Pancetta is also a really nice thing to start with when making Pasta Carbonara. For those who haven't had this, it's a non-tomato sauced pasta presentation featuring smoked meats. Vegans could probably get a decent dish using portabello mushrooms but the flavor would be very different - albeit probably not bad. Don't saute them with the extra virgin olive oil, though, save it for flavor. And re-name the recipe if it's good. :-)


I like Spaghetti the best with this but fettucine isn't too bad

Pancetta or thick-cut smoky bacon or smoky ham (needs to have some fat)
Peas (I use frozen)
crushed garlic
Parmesan Cheese
Extra virgin olive oil
If you really like onion, you can have some of that too.

Cook your Spaghetti. While it's getting to al dente, cook about one oz of meat per serving, rendering out the fat. Do not drain the fat. Toss in the Garlic (don't let it turn dark brown, if it burns it gets bitter and nasty; keep the temperature low enough to soften it). When the pasta is finished, drain it. Put it in the warm pan with the meat and garlic; add a splash of olive oil to get t he rest of the ingredients sticking nicely, throw in the peas and the parmesan cheese. Toss this in the warm pan til everything is mixed together. Top with coarsely ground black pepper.  Serve it now.

Everything in this recipe is to taste; it sounds challenging but you know what proportions this group of ingredients goes in so have at it.

For authentic italian presentation, make a small nest in each serving and drop in a raw egg yolk. Not my way of doing things, but it is done in some parts.

[V-Adore]

I do love me some pasta carbonara. I've had limited patience with marinaras, but I once had a gnocchi carbonara which was like kissing God. Once I get facilities, I'm going to be eating that stuff three days a week, I swear.

[AlohaDawg]

Update: Cooked the Carbonara tonight with bacon and Portabello mushrooms. It was quite good. You may want to add the mushrooms to the sauteeing onion/garlic/bacon mix and add maybe 1/4 - 1/2 cup of wine and cover it. That will steam the mushrooms. Once the wine evaporates, add the spaghetti and oil. The mushrooms added a lot of body to the dish.

[wombat]

Carbonara-wise - Toss the egg with the very hot pasta and it's not raw anymore, it makes kind of a sauce.  You have to do it fast so it doesn't make scrambled eggs.  We use whole egg but I am curious about how just a yolk would work, I will try it.

We used to make a very nontraditional carbonaralike thing with no meat, just onions and green and red peppers with the egg and cheese.  

Speaking of gnocchi and of smoked meats: Saute some garlic in olive oil and then put in some prosciutto cut up into little short strips and saute till it's kind of cripsy.  Toss with gnocchi and a ton of grated cheese.

[sailor]

poor as fuck spagetti

1 half package gov't noodles from local food bank.

some soy sauce that has been in the back of your cupboard, sans cap, for 5-8 years.

directions:

overcook spagetti. drain. throw some at wall.
add soy sauce.
eat.
regret.

[AlohaDawg]

Carbonara-wise - Toss the egg with the very hot pasta and it's not raw anymore, it makes kind of a sauce.  You have to do it fast so it doesn't make scrambled eggs.  We use whole egg but I am curious about how just a yolk would work, I will try it.

Yup!  I actually cracked 3 whole eggs in a measuring cup. added a 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese and whisked it all together - then I poured a steady drizzle over the hot noodles while stirring them up good (this is after you drain them and add them to the pan with the bacon and stuff...right after). Keep them moving constantly and you won't get the scrambled eggs effect - make sure the noodles are nice and hot, hot enough to melt the cheese and cook the eggs simulataneously as they mix. It's pretty good that way and, really, you won't be eating raw eggs.

[wombat]

Oh good. If our man from the CDC says those eggs aren't raw, that's good enough for me.

[linnea]

Daaaaamn, choopernickel, that recipe sounds amazing. I will have to try it.

My pa is Sicilian, and when I was a kid we'd haul out this huge stockpot and make gallons of spaghetti sauce from scratch. We'd cool it down and stick bowlfuls into the deep freeze, and then we'd have spaghetti sauce for a couple of months. It wasn't until I was about ten years old and I went to a friend's house for some jarred Prego or Ragu or some shit that I realized that not everyone makes their sauce from scratch. Our recipe has been handed down, and it takes all damn day, but it's worth it. The ingredients in yours sound absolutely fuck*ng delicious.

In the summertime, we'd use our own tomatoes from our garden. It's too damn expensive to make the sauce purely from scratch unless you can grow the tomatoes yourself. Hopefully, when I am able to purchase a house, I'm planning on building some sort of greenhouse with a Thrombe wall for heating. And then I'll have hothouse tomatoes! w00t.

[jay-ell]

This one goes out to all you starving college students.  

My momma's spaghetti is thick & hearty, simple to make and -- best of all -- serves 4 with plenty of leftovers on a tight budget.  It makes good use of convenience foods and, ladies, it'll impress the socks right off your boyfriend.  Serve with box wine or milk and bagged salad.  

Mama K's Midwestern Spaghetti:

1 lb. ground chuck ($2.49) (Can sub crumbled meat substitute -- this is actually the perfect recipe for it.  Even carnivores won't know the difference.)  
2 8 oz. cans tomato sauce (2@$0.49 = $0.98 )
1/2 6 oz. can tomato paste ($0.69)
2 tbsp dried minced onion ($2.99/bottle)
1 tbsp minced garlic ($1.69/bottle)
2 tbsp Italian seasoning ($3.69/bottle)

8 oz. spaghetti ($0.49)

Optional ingredients:
canned white mushrooms, sliced ($0.99)
Shredded parmesean cheese ($1.79/can)

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Brown the beef (or substitute) in a large skillet.  Drain off fat.  

Season the beef with the garlic, onion, and Italian seasoning.  Add tomato sauce and tomato paste.  Stir.  Simmer 20 - 30 minutes.  

Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions.  Drain; keep warm.  

Divide spaghetti onto individual plates.  Spoon sauce over.  Sprinkle with parmesean, if desired.  

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This recipe will cost you $13.02 the first time and $4.65 if you have minced onion, minced garlic, and Italian seasoning on hand.  I actually buy everything but the ground beef whenever it goes on sale, and have made this meal for as little as $0.50 per serving.