Easy Spaghetti & Meatballs

My husband loves pasta. He could eat it every meal. I like it, but there are a lot of other foods I would rather eat. What I do love about it is the ease of preparing pasta on a busy weeknight. I grew up eating sauce that had beef mixed in, but Hubs loves italian sausage meatballs. I have since learned some easy ways to make these happen without too much effort. 

Meatballs

Links of italian sausage {I also use seasoned chicken sausage} 

Important note: it's easier if it's in the casing

Since the meat we use is already seasoned, all I do to prepare them is divide the link of sausage in thirds with my hand and twist the meat out of the case. This leaves you with the perfect portion for a meatball and you don't have to do much rolling to get it round. This will literally take me a minute to make 15 meatballs. It doesn't get easier.

Sauce

1 16oz. can of tomato sauce 

1 yellow onion chopped

2 tbs minced garlic

Optional mushrooms

Optional peppers

a spot of EVOO

Basil*

Oregano*

salt & pepper*

1 tsp Cocoa powder

*I'm terrible at measuring, just toss it in until it tastes good

Combine the garlic, EVOO, onions and peppers in a pan on low/medium. Sauté until the onions are slightly clear. I usually throw in the meatballs and some Basil and Oregano and allow it to simmer for 5-10 minutes. Once the meatballs are greyed and cooked on the outside, add the tomato sauce and allow the sauce to simmer for 20 minutes stirring occasionally. I love using my grease splatter cover to keep the popping sauce from covering the stovetop. I also taste the sauce often and add more oregano, basil or salt and pepper as I feel needed. Once the sauce has simmered for a bit, add 1 tsp cocoa powder. It seems counterproductive, but it gives the sauce more depth. Trust me. I usually turn the sauce on low after 30 minutes or so and start cooking the noodles. Simmering for longer periods of time marries the spices and really brings the dish an amazing flavor.

 All in all, this usually takes 45 minutes form start to finish. I don't consider that a bad deal for such a yummy meal. Oh and if you haven't tried them, the Giada Fusilli col Buco pasta is the funnest pasta I've ever had. Adding food coloring to the boiling water before adding pasta gives it a fun color for special occasions. I added pink for our Valentine's Day dinner as shown above.