Spaghetti-Os with meatballs

Oh.

Here at 40 Ingredients Forever, recipes are abundant in joy yet streamlined in process—because they’re all made of the same 40 ingredients.

Yesterday before noon, I’d cooked and eaten bits and bites of:

Buffalo wings

Pickle slaw

Yogurt ranch slaw

Buffalo cauliflower

Broiled radicchio

Balsamic lentils

Raisin vinaigrette

Squash and burrata

Roast tofu, two ways

Braised pork shoulder, two ways

Staring down the road to dinner, what could I possibly want to eat? On particularly heavy recipe-development periods like right now, my appetite whittles to the most basic foods.

This used to terrify me — will I ever have another recipe idea again? — but I’ve come to be grateful for it, to be doing what I love at full speed and to have foods that are still there to feed me along the way. White rice, oatmeal, plain but perfect sweet potatoes (coming next week?), sautéed spinach, steamed broccoli, toast, and so much pasta with tomato sauce.

Sometimes it’s pasta with Rao’s marinara. Other times with Marcella sauce. And then yesterday, like a mirage, I thought of Spaghetti-Os, which I don’t think I’ve ever eaten from a can. I wish I knew what made me think of it. But I love pastas you can eat from a small bowl with a spoon. And I simply adore the look of this can:

So dinner was settled, and then made — easily. It started with mini meatballs: Break off bits of Italian sausage and sear them in a skillet. Look, meatballs. The sauce used the sausage drippings, a whole can/tube of tomato paste, a few smashed cloves of garlic, a pinch of crushed red pepper, and water. The pasta cooks in the sauce. There’s nothing really to measure. Nothing to chop. And it only used my 40 ingredients. Oooooh!

Spaghetti-Os with meatballs

For 4

• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

• 4 Italian sausage links (or 1 pound bulk)

• 4 garlic cloves

• 1 (4½ ounce) tube double concentrate tomato paste or 1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste

• Crushed red pepper

• 8 ounces (about 1 1/2 cups) ditalini or anelletti pasta (or any small, short pasta)

• Salt

• Parmesan, for serving (optional)

1. In a large skillet or Dutch oven, heat 2 tablespoons oil over medium. Squeeze roughly ½-inch balls from 4 Italian sausages and plop them into the pan as you go. Once they’re all in there, increase heat to medium-high and cook, stirring occasionally, until the meatballs are golden, 7 to 10 minutes. Transfer meatballs to a plate and pour off all but 2 tablespoons fat.

2. While the meatballs are cooking, smash and peel 4 garlic cloves. When the meatballs are out of the pan, reduce heat to medium-low. Add 1 container tomato paste, the garlic, and a pinch of crushed red pepper. Cook, stirring, until the paste is a shade darker, 2 to 4 minutes.

3. Add the 4 cups of water, stirring and scraping up the browned bits, and bring to a boil over medium-high. Add 8 ounces pasta, the meatballs, and 1 teaspoon salt. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook, scraping and stirring often to keep the pasta from sticking to the pan, until the pasta is cooked through, 10 to 12 minutes. Top with grated Parmesan if you like.

PRINT THE RECIPE

Spaghetti Os With Meatballs Ali Slagle's 40 Ingredients Forever

127KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

SWAPS

• Italian sausage: Use bacon or pancetta. Add shredded chicken or white beans at the end. Or skip it and just have Spaghetti-Os, straight-up.

• Garlic: Skip it, or add garlic powder or Italian seasoning.

• Tomato paste: Instead of tomato paste and water, use 2 cups of your favorite marinara, plus 2 cups water.

• Pasta: Use two canned of drained white beans, but then it’s pork and beans, not pasta with meatballs…

THINGS TO ADD

• You can switch up the style of the sauce. Add anchovies, olives, and capers for puttanesca. Add a lot of crushed red pepper for arrabiata. Add a splash of vodka with the tomato paste, and finish with heavy cream, for vodka sauce.

• Add frozen broccoli or cauliflower with the pasta. Wilt baby spinach or kale at the end.