Meal 1 - Italian

As an individual of Italian descent, it was only fitting that my first meal would be an Italian Dish. Pasta and meatballs. Does not get much better than that. This is such a simple yet delicious meal. This is a time-consuming dish, but it is well worth the wait. The only problem with this sauce and meatballs is that when a recipe comes from your Italian speaking nonna, she tends to write half of it in Italian and not put any measurements. Nonnas always say that "you put as much as you need." Which really does not help. So you just have to add the ingredients by taste.

To begin with the sauce. This takes about 3 - 4 hours to cook fully through. You start with just lightly browning garlic and onions in some oil and then adding 3 or 4 jars of your tomato puree. Add some salt, pepper, and oregano and you let the sauce boil. Once it begins to boil, lower the heat to medium, cover the pot and let it sit for a few hours. While this is cooking, its a perfect time to start the meatballs. These are easy, but a little messy. You take your ground sausage, toss it in with some salt, pepper, parsley, eggs, and breadcrumbs. Mix it all together and then make your balls. Once this is done, you can throw them in the saucepot and let them cook with the sauce. This allows the flavours from the sauce to really soak into the meatballs. Then all you have to do it let it sit for a few hours, and stir it occasionally. Once the sauce is all cooked, you can portion it in containers and freeze it so that the next time you want pasta, your sauce is already made.

One of the best things about fresh sauce is the smell. In a short time, your entire home smells like fresh sauce, and it feels like you have just walked into nonnas house.

Now while the sauce is cooking, that gives you more than enough time to clean up the mess from prepping the sauce and the meatballs and even gives you time to do some of those class readings that you have been dreading.

After about 4 hours, when your sauce has thickened up, you can start boiling some water for the pasta. The key is to add the salt to the pasta water once it has started boiling. Why? I have no clue. That is just what my nonna told me.

Cooking the pasta only takes about 15 minutes. And once that is done, it is time to plate.



It just looks so beautiful.
This is one of my favourite dishes to make and eat. As a student living away from home, this meal makes me feel like I am at home having Sunday dinner with my family.

I did share this meal with a roommate, who asked for seconds.... and thirds. Something that I learned is that you can never make too much pasta!

Click here for a pasta and meatballs recipe to try at home!