Spaghetti and Cheatballs: Foodie Underdog recipe #1

This is the first of a series of recipes for all you foodie underdogs out there.

Foodie underdogs are people who've never learned to cook, or don't like cooking, but have to feed themselves or other people.

Mealtimes are an ongoing pain in the ass for foodie underdogs. So I've decided to rescue them from their mealtime hell, with totally basic, doable meals, that require an absolute minimum of ingredients, hardly any kitchen equipment, and the least amount of kitchen time possible.

Read all about the Foodie Underdogs project

Spaghetti and Cheatballs

Makes 4 average-sized meals.
Start cooking about 30 minutes before you want to eat.

Look at this lovely steaming pile of spaghetti with homemade tomato sauce and meatballs. You can make that sauce with only two ingredients, and the whole meal has only four ingredients. Cheatballs are just little lumps of ‘ready made’ meatballs squeezed out of the sausage skins. Add some canned tomatoes and you’ve got a great sauce. Boil water, and add pasta, and you’ve got an easy, tasty, meal

Step up foodie underdogs. This recipe is going to change your life!

Ingredients

• 6 good quality, fresh, spicy sausages
• two tins of plain chopped tomatoes
• box of pasta -- any kind you like
• salt for the pasta water

Kitchen equipment

• a medium sized pot or pan for the sauce, preferably one with a heavy bottom.
• a big pot to boil the pasta
• a colander or sieve for straining the pasta
• a can opener and a knife
• a timer

A little pep talk about buying sausages

See all these lovely sausages? These are the ones you're after for this meal. You want sausages made from real, fresh meat, fat and seasonings -- not pre-cooked and full of fillers and preservatives. If you're confused, just ask one of the shop people to show you a good fresh sausage suitable for turning into meatballs.

The sausages are going to provide all the seasoning for this dish, so get something spicy. We love chorizo, merguez, or spicy Italian. But if you hate spicy, go for something milder -- they're your cheatballs afterall!

I know someone's going to say something like "I'm not spending $12 on a pack of 6 fresh sausages. That's way too expensive." To you I say, It's only $3 per serve of good quality meat. You're worth it.

How to make cheatballs

Heat a heavy bottomed pot on the stove. Just medium heat, not super hot.
Grab a sausage confidently (if they're all strung together, cut them apart).
Squeeze out meatballs like this:

 Pinch the sausage skin.

 Squeeze balls of meat out of the skin, and straight into the hot pot.

 Keep going, sausage by sausage. You'll get about 6 - 8 meatballs per sausage.

 Look at that! Instant meatballs.

Once all the meatballs are in the pot, let them cook for 8 - 10 minutes, stirring every now and then. Bits of meat will get stuck on the bottom of the pot. That's all good. It adds to the flavour. 

 It's OK if they don't all look cooked through. They will finish off cooking in the tomatoes.

On to the tomato sauce

Open the cans of plain chopped tomatoes.

Dump the tomatoes, juice and all, into the meatballs. Stir around, and leave to bubble away gently. I mean gently. No frazzled full-on boiling here. As the sauce bubbles the tomatoes will thicken a bit, the meatballs will cook through, and the seasoning from the meat will get into the tomatoes. Yum. 

That's the sauce more or less done. Just watch it, and stir occasionally while the pasta is cooking. Start the pasta now, so the sauce and pasta will be ready at the same time. At any point if you think the sauce is thick enough for you, turn the heat off and put a lid on the pot.

Now, cook the pasta

If you already know how to cook pasta, then just cook it. If you don't, here's how:

Get the biggest pot you've got, and fill it about 2/3 full with hot water from the tap. Add a good handful of salt to the water. Just use cheap old iodised table salt.  Don't panic about this being too much salt. You're not going to eat it all. It's just seasoning the water. Put the lid on (if you've got one) and turn the heat to high.

Once the water is boiling madly, drop the pasta in. The water will stop boiling for a bit. That's cool. Just watch until it's up to a boil again, and set your timer for 11 or 12 minutes (or whatever time the directions on your pasta package says).

Let the pasta boil madly, with the lid off. (Why? Because if you leave the lid on, it will boil over and make a mess on your stove. That sort of thing ruins dinner.)

When the timer goes off, fish out a piece of pasta and bite it. If it's still hard or dry in the middle, leave the pot to boil for another minute, and test again. When it's soft and nice to bite through, it's done. Now's the time to drain the pasta.

Put a colander or strainer in the sink, and pour the pasta and water into it.

Put the pasta straight back in the pot and put the lid on. It's OK if there's still a bit of water dripping out of the pasta.

Serve up proudly
It's best to serve pasta as soon as it's cooked. So get to it.

Pile some pasta in a bowl. Spoon the sauce over the top. Love every bite.

Can we make this recipe better?
If you try this recipe, and have any trouble or think you can make it easier, please let me know. Leave a comment and I'll get back to you.