Spaghetti and Meatballs

Here’s a basic standby you can fall back on for years to come. This is really a recipe for meatballs, which aren’t at all hard to make, and a method for simmering them quickly in store-bought sauce (to keep things simple for now), piling it all onto freshly cooked pasta, topping with cheese and pepper, and sitting down to a perfect meal. Start making the meatballs about an hour before you want to eat, to allow time for shaping and browning them and then simmering them in the sauce while the pasta cooks. Or, even better, make the meatballs and cook them in the sauce a day or two ahead and then reheat them (slowly, over low heat, stirring gently from time to time) while the pasta cooks. The flavors will become deeper this way.

INGREDIENTS

One 24-ounce jar prepared tomato sauce, or about 3 cups
Homemade Italian Tomato Sauce
Meatballs
Salt for the pasta water
1 pound spaghetti
3 tablespoons olive oil
Grated Parmesan cheese
Freshly ground black pepper
Red pepper flakes
A handful or two of chopped flat-leaf parsley

PROCEDURE

1. Pour the tomato sauce over the meatballs in the pot they cooked in. Turn the heat to low, and simmer gently while you cook the pasta.
2. Put a large pot of cold water to boil over high heat, and add a tablespoon of salt. Place a large colander in the sink. When the water boils, add the spaghetti, keeping the heat high. Cook for the amount of time recommended on the package, tasting a strand toward the end of the suggested time to be sure it is not getting overcooked. When it is just tender enough to bite into comfortably but not yet mushy, dump the water-plus-pasta into the colander. Shake to mostly drain (it’s okay to leave some water clinging), then transfer the spaghetti to a large bowl and immediately drizzle with the olive oil. Toss to coat.
3. You can serve this in one of two ways: Dump all the sauce-plus-meatballs into the bowlful of pasta, shake and toss to mix, top with Parmesan, black pepper, red pepper flakes, and parsley, and serve right away. Or make individual servings, using tongs to place some spaghetti onto each plate and then ladling on a generous amount of the meatballs and sauce. Serve hot, passing around the Parmesan, black pepper, red pepper
flakes, and parsley so people can customize their spaghetti-and-meatball experience.




Serves 4 to 6