Long, long ago, when dinosaurs still walked the earth and I was young and beautiful without make-up, when I didn't have so much as a speck of a thought about Hungry Bae but ate like it was my patriotic duty, I would sit for hours at my desk with the computer on, hunting for recipes. The funny thing is that back then only one category of recipe interested me – or more precisely, I only cared about dishes with resounding classic (?) names. The kind whose names we heard in films, saw in magazines, on restaurant menus or on shop shelves, and the kind you could say to a foreigner at the ends of the earth and they would immediately know what you were talking about. Sushi, paella, American pancakes, French toast, lasagne, Neapolitan pizza – it's funny, but at the time all of that seemed to me like genuine culinary masterpieces, the only recipes that not only should but must be printed in cookery books or shown on television. I could never understand who could possibly care about some „braised leeks with mozzarella, coriander and a fried egg” 😁😁😁 I wanted resounding classics, full stop!
Today, when I can boast of a slightly clearer head, and having tasted the greater part of the mainstream dishes, I have come to the conclusion that what actually interests me more are those „fancy” creations with even „fancier” herbs and the „fanciest” sauces. But I don't avoid the classics either – only on condition that they have at least some authenticity and truth to them. In Naples I will certainly order pizza first, in Tokyo sushi, and in Berlin sausages with German salad. And today, paying my dues to the absolute classics, it is with great joy and nostalgia that I share a wonderful recipe for Italian spaghetti with meatballs and marinara sauce, which after long searching, study and experiment exceeded every expectation. I can guarantee that your home will smell, and your stomach will feel, one hundred per cent Italy.🍝
Because I love „real” food, I studied both Italian restaurant material on making spaghetti and meatballs and the traditional recipes of Italian families, so that mine would be as close to the original as possible. The most important detail of the dish, the one Italians callsegreto(the secret), and the one you must use when cooking this recipe, is the way the pasta is finished, which makes it wonderfully delicious. Once the spaghetti is cooked, drain the water, but on no account dry the pasta out; when you drain it, leave at least a couple of spoonfuls of liquid in the pan so the pasta doesn't dry. Then add a few spoonfuls of the prepared marinara sauce, set it over a high flame and stir until the spaghetti is coated in marinara. Using this method the pasta finishes cooking in the sauce and absorbs it. And there is the little Italian secret to finishing your spaghetti and meatballs perfectly.
