Dad's Belated Birthday Dinner - SPIDER

My dad loves meatballs - he likes spaghetti & meatballs, but I only had rigatoni. My prep time was pressed, but I still pulled it together to serve dinner by 8pm (after we got the boys to bed).

I (kinda) use Michael Chiarello's The Tra Vigne Cookbook for the meatballs...He uses it to stuff bell peppers. His recipe uses about 1 lb. of ground meat (sirloin I think, but I used ground been & pork). Combines with 1 egg, parsley, garlic, onion (I grate the onion & garlic - I like the way the juices help to moisten the meat AND as I've mentioned before, Scott is not a fan of onion - he likes the taste and hates the texture!), bread crumbs and just shy of 2 C of water (I know it sounds crazy, but these meatballs are VERY tender & delicate & melt in your mouth). I use an ice cream scoop to make the balls and put them straight onto a sheet pan. I give the balls a roll to even them out on all sides and then roast on high heat (450) for about 20 minutes and then add them to the sauce. I let them simmer in the sauce while I boil a pot of water for the pasta (I always add a small hand full of salt to the water before cooking) and then add the almost cooked pasta to the sauce & meatballs (thinning the sauce with pasta water so the pasta can finish cooking in the sauce). NOTE: I do not use a colander for pasta...I use a spider - I think it's a Chinese utensil - like a strainer with a handle...That way I always have enough pasta water.

We also had NY Steaks from the farm at Fresno State (salt & pepper about an hour before cooking and bring to room temp) with sauteed onions (not for Scott), a salad made from my MIL's farm box, my father had brought a baguette from a bakery he had been to for lunch. AND we opened a 2007 EII...

Dinner was good...I just wish I had had about one more hour...Wouldn't have been so rushed!