The perfect Pasta Sunday meal for 5-6, the size of my usual gang. What do I know about Calabria? Not a whole lot! Lucia gave me unsolicited cautionary advice about the men but too late. Ha. I must say being friends with my guy is much easier than the romance. Oops! His love for Italian food and cooking is hard to resist. Yep, his family is from this region. So, what makes this pasta dish Calabrian … The Calabrian peppers and the long macaroni … all of it!
This vegetarian recipe whips up in minutes. So, you’ll have plenty of time to see a movie in the same evening … at a theatre or in the comfort of your own home. Have you ever heard of The Shell Seekers with Maximilian Schell?
And while we are waiting for the spaghetti and meatballs to cook let’s have a stuffed mushroom made with some of the meatball mixture; and wine, red to go with what we put into the sauce. Cin Cin!
The spaghetti and meatballs (and the stuffed mushrooms) are ready and it’s time to put on the Godfather. Clemenza will be giving Michael instructions about making a good sauce. Here is my version of Clemenza’s spaghetti and meatballs … an easy sauce with meatballs and sausage.
The cooking time is lengthy but a slow cooker works well if it is large enough. I like to cook this recipe on a weekend when the weather has me pretty much trapped at home. The warmth and smells from the kitchen are comforting. And my family loves it.
After cooking for some hours the gravy rests so any excess fat can be skimmed off the top. Sunday it is ready for either spaghetti and meatballs, rigatoni, or lasagna. If there is any gravy left over it is frozen to be used for that quick meal during the week … Or maybe this November when I cook my recipe of bracciole for Marc or Ed.
But what about those jarred sauces! Most are not meat sauces as this is but marinara. There are some very good ones out there … Some being sold on behalf of the TV chefs we know. Giada used a jarred sauce to prepare one of her grandfather’s favorite holiday recipes. I have used the brand she used many times. And it is very good. When I use these jarred sauces it is usually not alone … Adding wine, olive oil, finely chopped tomatoes or meatballs to not only extend it but to give it an extra oomph. I do watch for certain ingredients on the label and am cautious about the sodium level.
It’s just nice, if you have the time, to make this from scratch.