Tonight’s quick faux spaghetti and meatballs utilized some high quality prepared items that made cooking dinner a breeze. In a sense, it’s a semi-homemade recipe a la Sandra Lee.
I hate to even type that because Sandra Lee chaps my hide: her recipes are terrible, her tablescapes are vomit-inducing, and she’s too damn perky for me. However, I do like the premise of her show – using shortcuts to get a tasty meal on the table fast. In fact, some might argue that’s kind of the idea of this here blog but I’m too much of a cranky mother to be mistaken for a Paleo Sandra Lee.
Here’s what I gathered to feed 4 people:
- A tablespoon or two of ghee
- A pound of uncooked Italian sausage made from the trim of my Full of Life Farm ½ hog
- A package of kelp noodles, zucchini spaghetti, or broiled zucchini “noodles”
- ½ a jar of my favorite spaghetti sauce
Here’s what I did:
I took the sausage out of the casing and rolled them into little meatballs.
Ingenious, right? I can’t take credit for it though ‘cause I was inspired by this recipe from the cool folks at White On Rice Couple.
I melted a tablespoon of ghee in a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. When the pan was hot, I fried the mini meatballs in a single layer in the pan until they were browned on all sides.
I added about ½ a jar of Rao’s marinara sauce and brought the sauce to a boil.
Then, I covered the pan and simmered the sauce on low for about 5 minutes.
I rinsed off the kelp noodles in a colander and added them to the meatballs and sauce.
I covered the pan and simmered the sauce and noodles for a few minutes until the noodles were tender.
The softened noodles resemble Asian bean thread noodles so don’t expect them to have the taste and texture of Italian pasta. You can leave out the kelp noodles and still have a quick and yummy meal.
