Without the Beans...

It is not uncommon for me to make minor tweaks to recipes. Sometimes it as simple as just not measuring ingredients, but eyeballing them or swapping out one ingredient for another or leaving out a minor ingredient. Well, tonight I did something I haven’t done before… I intentionally left out a major ingredient. Jamie Oliver recently did an episode titled “Peas and Broad Beans” and I decided to make his Quick Sausage Meatballs with a Tomato and Basil Sauce, Spaghetti, and Sweet Raw Peas from it only I left out the peas. Now I know I said it was intentional, but that is not exactly the truth. The truth is I looked for the peas at the store, but I just went to the regular grocery store and not a vegetable market or a grocery store with more variety and consequently didn’t find them. So, I made the call to go ahead with the recipe and leave out the peas, which was disappointing as I was curious how the raw peas would work in the recipe. In the end the recipe was delicious despite my leaving out the peas, only I am still left wondering what it would have been like had I included them… I guess there is always next time.

To make Jamie’s Quick Sausage Meatballs with a Tomato and Basil Sauce, Spaghetti, and Sweet Raw Peas you start by snipping the end of the casing on the sausage (I used turkey sausage instead of pork) and then pushing the meat out into imperfect balls. These then sauté in olive oil until they are cooked through. While the sausage meatballs are cooking go ahead and start the water for the spaghetti and once it comes to a boil salt it and add the pasta. Once the meatballs are just about done cooking add some herbs to the pan. I used chopped fresh thyme, basil and parsley. In order to cut down the number of pans I was using I removed the sausages from the pan and then made the tomato sauce in the same pan where as the recipe calls for doing them in separate pans. To make the tomato sauce you start by heating olive oil and adding chopped garlic and basil stalks to it. Once these have cooked for a couple of minutes add some of the basil leaves and the cans of tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring this to a simmer and break up the tomatoes with a spoon or spatula and add a swig of balsamic vinegar to the dish. At this point I added the meatballs into the tomato sauce and let it simmer until everything was hot and incorporated. Serve over the pasta and top with fresh basil and Parmesan cheese.

As the recipe name indicates this really is a quick meal. It came together in very little time and was easy to do. I loved the simple tomato sauce, which had a great fresh flavor from the herbs and a little kick from the vinegar. I thought the sauce was so tasty that I would have been happy without the meatballs. However, the sausage meatballs were the easiest meatballs I have ever made and they did add nice texture and density to the dish. Russ loved the meatballs and thought they really completed the meal. While I was disappointed to not have the fresh beans to include in the dish, it was a wonderful meal that was perfect for a weeknight dinner. Russ rates the meal a 9.