Hello there, outwars here. In this post I will share about the cool and interesting lunch I had with my sister and her husband. We had Spaghetti and Meatballs, and bread. But these are not just any regular Spaghetti and Meatballs, almost everything is made from scratch.
My brother-in-law likes to cook. They have a sort of tradition that when they have guests over, he always cooks his awesome Spaghetti and Meatballs. It is my sister's favorite dish that he makes, and she only gets to taste it during these times, and maybe on special occasions.
I was working on some things so I wasn't able to take pictures at the start when he was making the pasta. I arrived when he was already finished pressing it. He was making several batches, but he was passing each to the machine several times, and each time it gets thinner and longer.
Speaking of the machine, this is the one he was using. This is the first time I'm seeing this machine, and the actual method of making spaghetti pasta. Back in the Philippines, we usually just use ready made pasta.
My brother-in-law was really happy with how they are looking. He said that these are thinnest he was able to make them ever, and it was because they were able to get and use better flour. It was difficult to find this one in their area, but they said it was really good.
Now I can understand why they don't make this version of Spaghetti and Meatballs often. It is pretty time consuming. The machine works slowly which is necessary so as not to accidentally cut the past in the middle.
Next step is the cutting of the pasta. The method is similar to the pressing, but this time they used a different attachment to cut it. He asked my sister to keep sprinkling some flour during the process to make sure the strands don't stick together.
After running all flattened pieces through the machine, they were able to make a lot of batches. We will cook all of them, but we won't be able to finish all of these, so we'll just store them in the refrigerator afterwards.
While this is all happening, the meatballs and the tomato sauce is cooking on the stove. I can see the tomato chunks, and the mushroom, and I can smell all the goodness. My mouth is already watering and I can't wait to taste it. The pasta is then placed in the boiling water to cook, since the sauce and meatballs are close to finished.
We then started working on the bread. We got some olive oil, cut some basil and other herbs, garlic, and prepared the white sauce for the bread. Some of the cut herbs will be going on the bread, while some will be used as toppings on the spaghetti.
We generously slathered the mixture on top of the bread. We will then cover it with foil, and bake it in the oven for a nice even heat. They have made these combos loads of time already, and are pretty confident that all will finish at the same time, so we can enjoy them at the perfect temperature.
Since the bread is best eaten when newly cooked, when it's nice and crispy, we put away the extra bread sauce for future use. They said that this could also be used as a dip for nachos or biscuits.
We then checked the pasta. My brother-in-law was a bit cautious since these were thinner than he's used to, so they might cook faster than normal. It was a good thing too, since upon checking, they seem to be close to done.
We then placed the pasta on the sauce to cover it before serving. At one point, I saw him just holding the pasta with his bare hands just after taking it out of the boiling water. I don't know if he has no more feelings on his fingers, or he is just resilient. My sister jokes that he has "Asbestos hands". I'm just here thinking this is a perfect example of "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen".
We have some of the sauce on the side. We added more on the pan as needed, and we also added a few on the meatballs when it was starting to dry up a little. We will store the rest in the refrigerator for future servings.
All that's left is to add the herbs as toppings, as well as the cheese, and the dish is complete. We had to wait a minute or two for the bread to finish, but they pretty much finished all at the same time.
The first picture above is how it looked after we served it from the pan. The one below is after I have placed some of the herbs and taken a bite. You might have noticed that there doesn't seem to be any cheese on this one as well. The thing is, I am a bit lactose intolerant, and I don't really appreciate the taste of cheese enough to add it.
To be honest, this might be one of, if not the best spaghetti I've had. I can taste the freshness of the ingredients. The pasta is really thin, but it is firm and soft, and you can feel the texture. The meatballs were well seasoned, and the bread was perfectly cooked and the garlic taste really works well with the spaghetti.
It has a whole range of flavors and texture in every bite. From the al dente and fresh pasta taste, the compact, and well seasoned meatballs, to that crispy, toasty, garlicky bread. It beats any similar dish I've had before by a lot.