An Italian Affair🔗

I don't remember how the craving for spaghetti and meatballs grew on me. Even before the surgery I was thinking once I got a bit better, I'd want spaghetti and meatballs. The last time I had it was my birthday last year, also as a special from A, and it was good. Probably that's why I miss it. Or it's just classic Italian cooking that makes you feel homey, which is exactly what I want coming back from hospital.

Last year A single-handedly orchestrated the whole affair as a birthday surprise for me. This time I wanted to be part of it despite some physical difficulty. My insistence of participation mostly stemmed from the spirit of Italian home cooking. It's a family affair. It's more than cooking. It's a shared time with your loved ones. It's to put your love into making something that warms them up.

During the past week recovering at home, I came across the show Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy. I'm not sure if it's my search for spaghetti and meatballs recipe that prompts its trailer into my view or the other way around the documentary awakens my appetite for A's signature comfort food. Well, in the era of AI recommendation, you never know. Doesn't matter if chicken or egg, for all the Italian food aficionado, I highly recommend this series. It's about the history and presence of Italian cuisine from all regions of Italy. But it's more than that. It has iconic views of all the famous stuff as well as rare views from local only vista. The touring around the country to show you stunning views part is like Tour-de-France. Just you are now tagged along chefs instead of cyclists. It's narrated in the form of storytelling, like this blog. It's usually more about the people, their past and present. A deep humanitarian lens as the main frame with food at its foreground.

Spaghetti and Meatballs🔗

The division of tasks goes as A is the masterhand behind meatballs and I'm grandmaspoon behind Sunday gravy¹. As I don't own the copyright nor do I know the recipe of A's family-famous meatballs. I cannot provide too much detail other than a list of ingredients that may not be complete or accurate. By the gist of meatballs, it's forgiving and personal. I'm sure you will find your own recipe and it's the best for you.

For 30ish medium size meatballs

• 1.5lb 90/10 ground beef
• a corner of a big onion, finely diced
• a corner of A factory loaf, crumbed
• 100g Parmigiano Reggiano, finely grated
• 3 egg
• 1 lemon zest
• all kinds of dried herbs

The YY style Sunday sauce takes a shortcut on the traditional approach. It starts with the pot after searing meatballs. Use the meat fat and oil in the pot to sweat onions and wilt beet greens, then add tomato paste to fry for a minute, then deglaze with tomato sauce, bring the whole pot to simmer, aka the beginning of tomato volcanic spitting. Return meatballs to the pot. Cover the pot with a lid. Phew, tomato eruption contained. Pot in the oven at 400F for 30min.

During the braising in the oven, the meatballs will finish cooking till done. The released meat juice will make the tomato sauce more flavorful. What's better? The entire time is unattended. You can clean the earlier spitted tomato lava, if any, or meat juicy splatter, if any, and any other cleaning. Then sit down and watch the documentary before the timer goes off. What a pleasure.

A: my balls	seared	use the oil in the pot to sauté veggies

deglaze with tomato	Sunday sauce	meatballs on top when braising

Later when you are ready for dinner. Just cook the spaghetti. Directly get it in the bowl (no need to drain, leave pasta water in the pot for final consistency adjustment). Ladle on the hot incredibly smelling Sunday sauce. Crown with a couple of meatballs. Finally finish with grated parm. It comforts my tummy and pleases my tongue every single day.

In the following days, a better way to reheat tomato sauce is to use an oven-safe container. I use a Pyrex measuring cup. Preheat the oven to 350F. Get the portion of sauce and meatball for the night into the cup. Put into the oven while boiling water for pasta. By the time pasta is done, the sauce is perfectly hot in the oven. It saves the time of heating up the entire pot every day, and also avoids the mess of tomato sauce splattering everywhere in the microwave.

One pro tip: Let the pasta and sauce sit together in either bowl or pot (if you use the pot to heat up sauce and mix the pasta in the pot before serving in the bowl, like what we did on the last day) for a couple of minutes to get the perfect sauciness. The heat, starch in pasta water, and sauce need some time to thicken up to a perfect consistency that gives the luscious lip coating experience from the very first bite. All it takes is patience. Don't worry about it getting cold. The thermal mass from pasta and sauce will keep warm for a while. If you still cannot wait and dig in early. You will wonder why the second half is better than the first half, saucier and more flavorful. Aha, next time you will do the pro move.

2nd day use less sauce	3rd day add milk to sauce

4th day add coconut milk, extra saucy by mixing pasta with sauce in the pot and waiting couple more minutes	every noodle generously coated with sauce

Amend: Mom's Meatball🔗

Mom accepted the challenge and made her version of meatball. It's soy sauce braised. It's one of the two dishes she's most proud of, the other one being pork chop, with a very similar sauce by my memory. I used to like a lot when I was kid. I can have so many of them that the exact count is usually lost in the Nom Nom process. It's simple but good. I guess it's a flavor called home.

Here are some pictures of them.

¹ Sunday gravy in Italian cooking refers to a big pot of tomato sauce stewed for a long time with all kinds of herbs and meat. It's usually prepared on Sunday (thereby the name) due to its lengthy process and constant attention to stirring. Once done, it can then be used throughout the week on any pasta or meat dish. Don't confuse "gravy" with the typical American gravy that's like a roux. I guess early Italian American immigrants used the word "gravy" to mean stewing meat for a long time. Probably to them any stew involves tomatoes and eventually turns into tomato sauce so there is no ambiguity calling it "gravy". To avoid confusion from readers without such knowledge, I will use sauce instead of gravy in the rest of the blog.