I've been craving pasta, so I set out to make my own marinara sauce. In the past, I'd always buy sauce that was ready to go because I saw cooking as more of a necessity and chore rather than a relaxing, pleasant, and rewarding activity. Plus, now that I have nice knives, great cookware, and a dishwasher, cooking is less frustrating and laborious because I get to focus on the more enjoyable aspects!
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| carrots and celery |
I followed Giada's simple
recipe for marinara sauce. I loved the bright colors of the carrots and celery, so I couldn't resist taking a quick picture of the vibrant veggies before throwing them in the pot with the onions and garlic.
We made our Italian meal look classic, but added a twist by using ground turkey. Steve seasoned the meatballs while I was working out so his meatball recipe is a secret to me, but I know he included a generous amount of Northern Italian seasoning by Aromatica Organics. I very gently mixed chopped red peppers and red onion into the seasoned meat by hand. We also cut some asiago cheese into little cubes so that the meatballs would have a cheesy center, similar to a
juicy lucy. I took special care in not squeezing the meat in order to preserve its tenderness.
To keep the meatballs from falling apart, we started by browning them in a pan with a little olive oil on medium heat. We flipped them very gently and carefully with a spatula, as tongs threatened to break the meatballs up. After the exterior was cooked, we set the meatballs in the simmering sauce to let the delicious tomato taste permeate the meat as it finished cooking.
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| turkey meatballs in sauce |
We spooned the sauce and meatballs over whole wheat pasta to round out the meal. The resulting dish was hearty, flavorful and entirely satisfying. The meatballs were incredibly tender and its spices were well-balanced. It was so good that we ate an entire box of pasta in the duration of just a few hours. We still have some sauced meatballs, which I think would be delicious in a sandwich!
