Prince (Barilla) Spaghetti Day

Today and every Wednesday it is Prince Spaghetti Day in the North End of Boston. That was a good commercial for Prince Spaghetti. The mom calling Anthony to come home for his plate of spaghetti.

In honor of this day I decided to make spaghetti and meat(a) balls. We don't have Prince products here so I used Barilla instead. We don't use white flour pasta anymore and Barilla now makes integrale and 5 cereal pasta and that is what we use and eat. Misura makes good integrale pasta also.

The sauce is made from vine tomatoes, garlic, onion, frozen basil and salt...with a little hot pepper. The oil I use is local. You can chop the tomatoes and onions and garlic into chunky pieces as it will cook down and it all gets ground thru a vegetable passata. I like vine tomatoes better than plum tomatoes. They give off a better perfumo and are more liquid.

Today's meatballs were made with hamburg, granna padanna cheese, fine bread crumbs, garlic, 2 eggs, pinch of salt and some hot pepper. I like to add some sausage meat to the meatballs but did not have any in the house today.

I cook the meatballs in just a little oil for about 5 minutes to brown and then add to the sauce.

When it got into the plate I was a little disappointed with the look, but it was just fine. I used to make this dish with tomato sauce, but for the past few years we have come to like the fresh tomatoes better.

Now I just need my Antonio ....to come to the table! An..to ...ni..o!!!