Lidia Bastianich is my spirit chef.

If you’ve never watched her on Create TV, you should go watch her cook. Her passion for Italian food and her nurturing personality come through the TV and give you a big warm hug. Mm! If you don’t know about her (blasphemy BTW), then you may have seen her son Joe Bastianich on MasterChef. He is the restaurateur, sommalier, and resident dapper badass Italian food expert.

Anyway, I love both of their shows and I have always wanted to try one of her recipes. Might as well start with the fundamentals right? Spaghetti and Meatballs. I didn’t make the spaghetti myself, which was an odd feeling when my boyfriend and I have grown accustomed to making our own pasta. That sounded super douchey, but trust me once you have handmade pasta, it’s hard to go back.

We only made a few tweaks to this recipe one of which was substituting the ground pork for ground turkey to accommodate our Muslim friend’s dietary needs and we were sorta watching our fat intake. SORTA. I also omitted the parsley because I feel the flavor is overpowering, but ultimately, it would have added a nice flavor to the meatballs.

Here is the recipe!!!
http://lidiasitaly.com/recipes/detail/804

As Lidia always says… Tutti a tavola a mangiare!!

(Thank you, Lidia for teaching me Italian…my Dad, who went to college in Italy, was quite proud when I said your phrase)

P.S. When I went to Chicago, I wandered into Eataly and saw that Lidia had cooking classes there. I….am jealous. I don’t live in Chicago, and have no real reason to be there. Jealous of Chicagoans who get the opportunity to learn from Lidia…..LIDIA!!!