Meatball Pasta

Hi everyone!

So here's a dish that I make when I get too lazy to cook, but not lazy enough to just eat ramen. The only thing you need to cut are just the garlic and onions. You can just use onions if you don't have garlic - I just LUURRVV the smell of garlic so I add them to anything I make (plus I have a Costco-sized bag of them). Vampires will definitely run away from me with the amount of garlic I have lol.

Ok, let's start!

This will serve about three portions. You can adjust the amount by increasing or decreasing the amount of pasta sauce you add, and the amount of meatballs you use.

Ingredients

Italian seasoning & black pepper - I don't think you need a picture for this.



7 cloves garlic - sliced

The amount of garlic you want really depends on your preference. If you only want it for the fragrance, you can just use 3 cloves. I like my garlic, so I tend to use a handful of them =)








1/2 Onion - julienned

I know different parts of the world have different sizes for onions. If your onions are small, just julienne them. If they are large (like the ones you get at Walmart), then halve them before you julienne them.







12 Meatballs

I am using chicken meatballs, but you can easily get the swedish meatballs from IKEA - they work great! The only thing you need to do with those is instead of thawing them, take however much you need from the freezer, put them in a bowl and microwave them for about 3 minutes (stir them once at 2 minutes before you microwave the last 1 minute). And just cook them up the same way!

18 oz. Pasta sauce

In guesstimating how much pasta sauce to use, I can tell you that if you buy the 24 oz. glass bottle, that one whole bottle is enough to make four portions. So use 3/4 for three people! If you're wondering why I don't get the giant plastic bottles, I used to. I stopped because once the sauce bottle is opened, it doesn't take long for the sauce to start turning bad, no matter how much care I took to wiping them clean, using clean utensils, etc. So I just opted to these small bottles so that I don't have to worry about them turning bad since I run through them whole bottles at a time =)





1 Egg

This is really up to you if you want to add to your pasta sauce or not. I've always added it to thicken up the sauce, and to reduce the tangy tomato taste. Some people find it weird, but I've always liked it ever since I added it on a whim.

6 oz. Angel hair pasta
(approx. 2" diameter)

I LOVE angel hair pasta because it takes the shortest amount of time to cook and it doesn't expand that much, so you can better estimate how much pasta to cook. Also, I don't believe in getting the pasta measuring plastic thing-a-ma-jig. Just because it's another thing to clutter up my kitchen with. I just agak-agak (estimate). The amount of pasta you eat changes from person to person, so if you know you eat |-----this much-----| then just make that much... x3. Make it once, and you'll know if you've made too much or too little. As a reference, I know that half a bag of the Walmart angel hair package (16 oz package) is enough to make four portions.


Instructions

1. Boil about 1/2 a pot of water (for the pasta).
2. Cut off the tops of the garlic, and slice them up.
3. Julienne the onion.
4. Once water is boiling, add some salt. Then add the angel hair pasta.
5. Turn heat to medium-low so that the water continues to simmer while you cook the pasta. Stir it every minute or two until it's cooked.
6. Heat up oil, then add garlic. Fry till brown.
7. When garlic is brown, add onions and fry until translucent. (Note: Check on the pasta here. If you can't tell if it's cooked, take one out and try. It should be bouncy but not hard on the inside. If it's cooked, run it through cold water, sieve, and dish them on to plates)
8. Add meatballs, pepper & italian seasoning (in that order). Leave to cook, stirring occassionally.
9. Add pasta sauce and stir it in.
10. When pasta sauce starts bubbling, turn the heat to low and add in the egg. Stir it in quickly to make sure it is well-mixed before the egg cooks.
11. Turn heat back up to medium and leave until sauce begins to bubble again.
12. Serve!

You can also add grated cheese on top if you wish. I ran out of cheese, so I didn't lol.

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Till next time!