Spaghetti is so simple, so easy to make, so why am I telling you how to cook perfect spaghetti?

I’ve had bad, limp, soggy, overcooked spaghetti. That takes delicious and turns it into disaster.

I’ve decided to give a quick reminder for how to cook perfect spaghetti.

I’m also showing you some of my  favorite spaghetti and meatball recipes from modern to classic.

No matter what your tradition is, please cook the spaghetti right.

It absolutely cannot be overcooked or under-seasoned.

It is better for your digestion, and absorbs more slowly lowering the glycemic level.

 Spaghetti should have a bite to it, and some flavor.

Always use a LOT of water. Your spaghetti is less likely to stick, and will cook faster.

Salt right after water comes to a rapid boil and right before you add the spaghetti.

I have so many different takes on America’s favorite supper and I put them all in one place for you. These are not all of my spaghetti dishes, just spaghetti and meatball dishes. Before I show you that, I have to tell you something about my Italian family.

Growing up, we never ever ever ate meatballs with our spaghetti.

It was considered “americana” and simply wrong.

Pasta was a first course, served in a dish just like the picture above. That dish was then removed, spaghetti eating was done, and the meatballs came out and were served with salad. The meat never touched the pasta.

My Italian great grandmother, Carmella, brought this way of eating spaghetti and meatballs with her and it was nearly 80 before anyone broke with tradition.

I can’t exactly remember when we put the meatballs on top of the spaghetti, but I was an adult. To this day I like  my meatballs with salad, but I have also become fond of meatballs plopped on top of spaghetti.

Sometimes I like garden spaghetti, with no red sauce at all. This is a summery version.

Turkey meatballs help you cut the fat and can be pretty yummy for people avoiding red meat.

If red sauce is a must,  we need my Italian grandmother’s tomato sauce. (Way easier than you think).

Prosciutto meatballs with homemade papparadelle is comfort food on steroids. This is homemade pasta, which only takes about 3 minutes or less to cook.

A foodie delight, homemade poppy seed noodles with prosciutto veal meatballs and a blueberry pear compote is a recipe taken right from an Italian magazine and it’s mind blowing (even if it doesn’t look it).

Sometimes we take the leftovers and make a Spaghetti Pie.

Retro Rose can’t get enough of classic spaghetti and meatballs  You have to see the film clip in this post.

While nothing probably beats that classic take, but you could  go paleo using spaghetti squash and these paleo meatballs.

I just have to share with you this favorite spaghetti dish that has no meatballs at all, but it has bucatini pasta, a very thick hollow spaghetti that is my husband’s all time favorite. If you’ve never had bucatini, you must try this dish.

 Bucatini all’Amatriciana is a 45 minute sauce made with pancetta and onions.

How do you like your spaghetti ? You know I really love hearing from you in the comments, and I will answer any questions you have.

Connect with me on Pinterest to see more Spinach Tiger Italian food, and, of course, instagram.

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If you are on Periscope, the new live streaming app, I’m going to be streaming live cooking Thanksgiving Dinner. It will be in five minute episodes, the weekend BEFORE thanksgiving! So please get the app and follow me. It’s interactive, and you can ask questions. It’s so much fun!

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How to Cook Perfect Spaghetti

How to make that perfect spaghetti that is not overcooked or under-seasoned.

Course Entree

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 8 minutes minutes

Cook Time 6 minutes minutes

Total Time 14 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1 pound spaghetti
• large pot with lid
• 6 quarts water
• 2 teaspoons salt
• ladle and bowl
• collander

Instructions

• Bring water to a rapid boil
• Add salt
• Add Spaghetti
• Put lid on.
• Stir for first two minutes.
• Watch the water doesn't bubble over.
• You want that spaghetti boiling away to 3 minutes before package directions.
• Taste strand. It should have a bite.
• It will continue to cook in the sauce you put it in.
• Drain pasta, but first reserve a cup of starchy water, which may be used to add back in to the sauce.
• If using a tomato sauce, add some tomato sauce to pot, add spaghetti back in, and finish cooking a minute or so. Add in a little starchy water.

Notes

You will need to taste and test a few times to get this right.

The post My Favorite Spaghetti & Meatball Recipes appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

Turkey meatballs with spaghetti is right now today separating me from anyone else in my family. I guess you could say I am third second generation American, first generation ground turkey. I’m fairly late in the game when it comes to ground turkey or turkey meatballs, because like my family, some things like Italian meatball recipes, you just don’t mess with. However, loving food as much as I do, and writing about food, I have made a conscious effort to find ways to enjoy food every night of the week without weight gain. You can see my ground beef recipe for spaghetti and meatballs here, with a sauce recipe.

Ground dark turkey (the only ground turkey I recommend) is very low fat at 94/6 compared with even the leanest of ground beef, and if you know how to boost the turkey’s flavor, (I think I do), you can enjoy one of America’s favorite comfort foods guilt free. Don’t laugh when I tell you that one of my secrets is to add fat back in. Olive oil is a healthy fat and the ground turkey needs it for flavor and texture. You could skip that, but don’t expect me to come to dinner. Just kidding, sort of.

These little meatballs are easy to make and freeze so you can have a quick meal (that is still good for you) within mere minutes. Ingredients will matter here so please use a very good pecorino or parmesan that you grate yourself.

As far as a non-traditional recipe, these turkey meatballs are delicious that you may not even notice the difference.

The tomato sauce recipe can be found here.

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Turkey Meatballs with Spaghetti

Low fat turkey meatballs, Italian style.

Course Entree

Cuisine Italian

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes minutes

Total Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

• 1 small onion
• 1 pound ground dark meat turkey
• 1 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 clove garlic minced
• 1/4 cup pecorino romano cheese (or parmesan
• 1 tablespoon parsley chopped
• few sprigs fresh thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs made from stale bread
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• fresh ground pepper

Instructions

• Saute onion and garlic in 1 tablespoons olive oil. Cool.
• Add onion and garlic and all the olive oil into the ground turkey.
• Mix all ingredients together.
• Roll into small meatballs 1 1/2 inch diameter.
• Bake in oven at 375 for approximately 20 minutes, turning once.
• (At this point you can cool and freeze meatballs for another day)
• Finish in tomato sauce on top of stove.
• Use your favorite tomato sauce, and cook spaghetti according to directions.
• This is enough meatballs to accompany 1 pound of spaghetti.

The post Turkey Meatballs with Spaghetti appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

Halloween is on the way! Ground turkey and brown rice stuffed into funny pumpkins is one way to do it, or to at offset the candy corn and there will be candy corn! I’m bringing back the Healthy Stuffed Pepper because it’s too cute not to share again.

My tradition every year is to go to Cheekwood Botanical Gardens to see the display of scarecrows. Different organizations/artists render their own viewpoint and these larger than life creatures are spread throughout 55 acres of beautiful gardens. The scarecrows will be there through Halloween. The following are actually pictures of two years ago. They have new scarecrows this year, which you can visit until the end of the month.

Cheekwood sits right there in Belle Meade, and in order to get there,  you have to pass the most amazing mansions that you think only exist in the movies and shows like the new hit Nashville.

During this season, they also have a pumpkin patch and a place to take pictures. This picture is from 2012, but I still love it.

These are just a few of the scarecrows.

You can picnic at Cheekwood any time of year!

Around the perimeter of the park, we discovered this trail with a very interesting sculpture garden. The giant half man/half rabbit is just plain creepy, but the glass bridge is charming. I don’t think most people know about this area of the park, because we are usually the only ones in this section, which makes it kind of cool in an enchanted forest way.

Two other attactions are the Treehouse and the Trains, including a running Thomas the Train.

Membership at Cheekwood has reciprocation at hundreds of parks in the country. Tell me, do you have a beautiful botanical park in your city like this? If you come to Nashville, this is a great place to visit.

The Recipe

Truly you could stuff these peppers anyway you like. I’ve done it two ways. One day I used left over meatballs crumbled up and mixed with cooked brown rice and on another day, I used ground turkey, brown rice and raisins. I’ve also tried carving before the peppers are baked and after. I had better luck carving after, but if you do, you must make sure the peppers are not too soft. Use an exacto knife if you have one and roast the peppers without any foil or covering. The foil or covering will soften the pepper too much.

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Jack O Lantern Stuffed Peppers and the Scarecrows of Cheekwood

Carving faces into orange bell peppers for Halloween and stuffing them with ground turkey and brown rice is fun and healthy.

Course Main Dish

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 40 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 4 orange bell peppers
• 1 onion chopped
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 pound ground turkey
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• sea salt pepper
• 2 tablespoons raisins
• 2 cups cooked brown rice

Instructions

• Cut out the core of the pepper and remove seeds.
• Saute onion and garlic until softened. In meanwhile, mix ground turkey with olive oil, Worcestershire Sauce, parsley, salt and pepper, raisins.
• Add turkey to frying pan and cook until done, turning frequently.
• Add in brown rice. Mix.
• Stuff peppers. Turn upside down into baking dish.
• Bake for 30-40 minutes at 350.
• Cook. Using exacto knife or sharp pairing knife, carve face.

The post Halloween Stuffed Peppers and the Scarecrows of Cheekwood appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

I am a burger lover.  It has to be a good one, like the one here or here or here. I especially like beef burgers, but lately I’ve taken to making turkey burgers and cutting the fat.

Let’s be honest. Turkey lacks flavor because it lacks fat. To make a good grilled turkey burger, you need to add in some flavor.

Here’s the good news. I discovered this summer that dried fruit is a great addition to turkey burgers and turkey meatloaf. Dried plums give ground turkey the something something that I think it needs to make a worthy turkey burger.

Grilled Turkey Burgers with Spinach and Dried Fruit

You don’t have to tell anyone what you did. They might be able to see the little pieces of spinach and dried fruit, but one bite and they will love them. Just don’t use more than one dried plum per 1/3 pound and don’t use canned or frozen spinach. It must be raw spinach; that’s my rule. Otherwise, you could create a strange texture and flavor not intended. I always add Worcestershire sauce to ground meat before I grill them. The salty kick and the sweetness of the dried fruit brings a nice balance to the meat.

Stick to this recipe and enjoy turkey burgers in a brand new way. Another piece of good news which is merely my own opinion is that this is not a burger that needs cheese. Top with an avocado or red onion jam or both, and enjoy the flavors and textures. I’ll be posting red onion jam soon.

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Grilled Turkey Burgers Made with Dried Fruit, Fresh Spinach

A great way to add flavor to turkey burgers while staying healthy.

Course Entree

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 pound ground dark meat turkey
• 4 dried plums finely chopped you can substitute with figs
• 1 big handful of baby spinach chopped finely
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Instructions

• Mix ingredients together. Place burgers on high heat grill and turn to medium high. Cook 5 minutes on each side.

The post Grilled Turkey Burgers Made with Dried Fruit, Fresh Spinach appeared first on Spinach Tiger.