Simply spaghetti

I think I've discovered my calling. After making spaghetti and meatballs for my parent's 33rd wedding anniversary several weeks ago, I decided to open an Italian restaurant.

It sounded like a good idea at the time, but I better stick to what I know -- and that's definitely not cooking! But my spaghetti and meatballs were actually edible and really good -- despite the rough start I had at the grocery store.

Before I began cooking, I had to pick up a couple of the ingredients at an anonymous grocery store in Cape Girardeau. I only needed fresh garlic and the pasta noodles, so I figured I'd be in and out pretty quick. After contemplating for about 10 minutes between plain pasta noodles or wheat pasta noodles, I finally settled on the plain ones. I picked the package off the shelf and ... WHOOSH! Every strand of the pasta fell out of the bottom of the unsealed bag and onto the floor.

Jennifer used Saran Wrap to keep the ground chuck from getting under her fingernails.

My face started to turn bright red as I glanced around to see if anyone noticed.

"Cleanup on aisle four," said a woman who witnessed my unfortunate disaster. Her young daughter laughed and pointed.

I smiled at her, bent down and scooped up what spaghetti noodles I could back into the bag. Unsure of what to do, I left the damaged product on the floor and went to find the garlic.

Don't get me wrong, I planned to tell one of the grocery store employees about my accident while I was checking out. But when I walked by aisle four, the spaghetti had already been cleaned up. To the unnamed grocery store, please accept my apology for leaving the raw noodles on the floor.

Once I got home, I gathered up the ingredients to cook the meatballs.

Here's what you need:

1 1/4 pound ground chuck

Jennifer Freeze's raw meatballs sat ready to be cooked.

1 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

1 clove finely minced garlic

4 beaten eggs

1/4 cup minced parsley

1/3 cup warm water

1/4 cup vegetable oil

Salt and pepper to taste

All of these ingredients went into a bowl. The directions instruct you to mix everything together with your hands. Did I read that correctly? Mix raw meat with my bare hands and get it all under my fingernails. Seriously?

Thankfully, my sister Meagan was in the kitchen to help me with this dilemma.

"Just wrap your hands up with Saran Wrap," she said.

Meagan pulled out the box of Saran Wrap and covered my hands with the plastic wrap. No meat was getting under my fingernails!

I mixed the meaty ingredients together and rolled up about 20 meatballs. The next step involved pouring the vegetable oil into a skillet and frying the meatballs over medium heat. Once the meatballs were finished frying, I placed them on a paper towel to soak up the extra oil.

Next I made the tomato sauce. Yes, I really did make my own sauce, too!

The ingredients:

1 (24-ounce) can tomato puree

3 (6-ounce) cans tomato paste

2 cloves minced garlic

1 chopped onion

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon basil

6 cups water

Salt and pepper to taste

I first chopped up the onion and garlic and placed it into a saucepan with the remaining meatball oil. Then I stirred in the tomato puree, tomato paste and water. When this was mixed up, I added the sugar and seasonings. After the sauce came to a boil, I lowered the heat.

Now it was time for the anticipation of the final result. The sauce needed to simmer uncovered for one hour and 30 minutes on low heat. After the time was up, I added the meatballs to the sauce -- only to wait another hour.

Finally, after spending several hours of touching raw meat, mixing various tomato products and enduring the strong smell of garlic in my kitchen, it was time to sample my spaghetti and meatballs.

As I took care of the sauce, I had my sister cook the spaghetti. I wanted to stay far away from the pasta after my accident in the grocery store. The recipe made enough meatballs and sauce for 1 1/2 pounds of spaghetti, so I invited my grandmother over to sample my meal with my parents.

"This is the best spaghetti I've ever had," my mom said after the first bite. Everyone else agreed the meal was probably the best one I'd ever made.

Maybe the Italian restaurant isn't such a bad idea after all. I'll keep you posted on when I start taking reservations.

Jennifer Freeze is a former features editor for the Southeast Missourian who enjoys testing her inexperienced hand at kitchen tasks.