Hey there, food fans! Today's meal was incredibly simple. The premise may seem like fiction from one of today's hottest imaginations (such as Dean Koontz) however it is non-fiction that takes place in a place that is all too real: my life!
I discovered the other day that Jen, the woman who I married, had never had spaghetti and meatballs (note: this is in her memory, her mother may chime in to debunk this statement). I was shocked to find that I had married her without knowing this. A few years back I had learned that she'd never had peanut butter and jelly. After doing some soul-searching I still decided to ask her to marry me.
So, tonight's meal is a pretty simple preparation of a dish that I am assuming most readers (at least readers who grew up in North America) have had: Spaghetti & Meatballs.
I figured that if I was going to make spaghetti and meatballs I'd better make sure to make the sauce from scratch. I bought some pretty below average vine "ripened" tomatoes that I elected to concasse.
Concasse, for those of you who are not annoying assholes who went to culinary school such as myself, is when you take the core out of a tomato, score the bottom, then boil them for 10-12 seconds before submerging them into an ice bath. This loosens the skin and makes them incredibly easy to peel.
I made a quick tomato sauce, threw together some meatballs (which I seasoned with bread crumbs, basil, garlic, onion, leftover rictotta cheese from our tart a week or two ago, some parmesan, salt and pepper), and then served the meatballs and sauce over some spaghetti.
Then I served it to Jen. Who had spaghetti and meatballs. For the first time. Ever. In her life. At the age of 28.
And it was delicious, too! Although it was a totally farm-share-free meal -- perils of the Monday night dinner. Yesterday, in addition, we went out to eat for dinner, but for lunch, I did manage to use at least two farm-share ingredients (garlic scapes, parsley) to make a summertime favorite: cucumber soup.

Delicious!
8 comments:
HOW COULD SHE NOT HAVE EATEN SPAGHETTI AND MEATBALLS THAT IS SO WEIRD!!!!!
Jen, now you can even more officially be welcomed into the Ricci/Venava family.
Mom B
Jen lies. We totally had spaghetti and meatballs before. Peanut butter and jelly is still definately a non starter in both the Naperville E household (the "Big E") and the Kalamazoo E household. In fact, Adam will be physically sick from even smelling/thinking about/being in the same room with a pb&j sandwich. Please do not test this out next time you see him, just take my word for it.
Mousie -- spaghetti, yes, loads of times. Spaghetti and meat sauce -- yes, tons of times. Spaghetti with actual balls of meat in it, though? No, I don't think so. Not that I can remember!!! Except maybe once when Gregg took me and Katherine to a play. WHEN I WAS TWO AND A HALF. So I don't count that!
But also, peanut butter and jelly is the ruin of some good peanut butter.
You are all fools . . . FOOLS! Peanut Butter and Jelly is fantastic! I'm not against plain peanut butter though I'd never had a plain peanut butter sandwich until I met Paul.
Yeah, why doesn't Paul like jelly? Plain peanut butter has kind of an ascetic appeal but I feel like I would just put some honey or banana or sugar or something on there if I could. Maybe not sugar.
I will concede that the spaghetti and meatball meals MIGHT (MIGHT!) have occured after you moved out. And they might have been soy meatballs.
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