It's not a summery dish at all, and "spaghetti and meatballs" doesn't sound quite worthy of a blog post. Especially in 2020 where low-carb is still ruling the culture.
But it's been my go-to comfort food dinner for the last few months.
I started making this awhile back as a substitute for making garlic bread. Because, let's face it, any one human being could eat an entire loaf of garlic bread on their own in one sitting. It's too easy.
This is very similar to Spaghetti with Breadcrumbs, which is basically what it is, but I add in some marinara (sometimes homemade, sometimes jarred) and I recently started adding in some frozen meatballs. I just simmer them in the sauce for a bit. I don't make a ton of meat, maybe 4 nights a week, and Wells just loves breads and pastas, but I also noticed that he would eat meatballs, so now I add them into this. I go through spurts where I make homemade meatballs but I noticed that a bag of frozen, organic meatballs at the store was cheaper than the ground meat itself. I wasn't about to make life harder, so I've mostly switched over to frozen for convenience right now.
This is so easy and so tasty and is the ultimate comfort food. You could easily do this with zoodles. I sometimes throw a spiralized pile of zucchini in toward the end of cooking the noodles. It's a great idea if you have a supply from your garden to use up.
This is the basic meal-prep:
I took this picture because, at this point in June (May? Who knows?), I'd packed up a lot of our cookware, so I only had three pans left to use.
-You heat the meatballs in the sauce in one pan.
-You cook the noodles in another, tossing them with parmesan, herbs, and garlic when they're cooked and strained.
-And you make the breadcrumbs in the third.
Spaghetti Breadcrumbs
2 T. olive oil
2 cups panko breadcrumbs (either plain or Italian)
1 t. dried oregano (fresh if you have it...I love fresh oregano but rarely keep it on hand)
1 t. dried, minced garlic
1/4 cup shredded parmesan cheese
Heat the oil over medium heat and toss the breadcrumbs, seasonings and cheese together. Stir constantly until everything is browned. It burns very quickly, so don't let it go too long.
What's the best dinner you made constantly and consistently over the last few months?
I have never added breadcrumbs to my spaghetti before, but it sounds delightful! Zoe is obsessed with meatballs.
ReplyDeleteOK - I love me some breadcrumbs & never thought about putting it on spaghetti. I've got to try this!!!
ReplyDelete