A recipe – Meatballs with Spaghetti

New York timing is even worse than “Sinai time” or “Ethiopia time”. In Sinai (Egypt), everything takes l o n g e r, shwaye shwaye (slowly slowly) and there is no reason to rush. With the Ethiopians (at least my Ethiopian friends in Israel) it is simple: they are always late. It can be 10 minutes late or even an hour.
Here in New York it is a mix, nothing starts on time (the subway is great excuse, and also great example), and most people run late as a routine.
And what keeps surprising me is that it looks like they don't really care - they don't care they are late and they don't care that they made you wait.


So take a deep breath and lets start to cook.

Ingredients

Whole-wheat Spaghetti (amount for 4 people)

For the Meatballs:

1 pound ground beef

1 egg

3 tablespoons bread crumbs (or - semolina, wheat germ)

1 tablespoon cumin

Salt and pepper

For the sauce:

2 big onions – chopped

4-5 tomatoes - chopped

2-3 cloves crushed garlic

1/2 cup of water

salt & pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon dried oregano or basil (or – bunch of fresh leaves)

Directions

1.     Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Cook the pasta in boiling the water for 8-10 minutes or until done; drain and wash immediately with cold water (to stop the cooking process).

Meanwhile:

2.     Put all the ingredients of the meatballs in big bowl and mix together. Put the bowl aside (best in the refrigerator).

3.     Heat the oil in a large wide saucepan; add the onions and garlic and fry while stirring.

4.     Add the tomatoes and stir for 3 minutes. Add the salt, pepper and the dried oregano or basil (if you use fresh leaves – add them just before serving).

5.     Lower the heat and cover the pot. Cook for about 10 minutes (until you get a nice sauce and not just chopped tomatoes).

6.     If you don’t have enough sauce, add the water and bring to a boil.

7.     Lower the heat.

8.     Shape small balls from the meat mixture and add them gently into the pot.

9.     Bring to a boil again, cover the pot, lower the heat and cook for 20 minutes.

10.  Serve with pasta and Parmesan cheese