Zucchini Spaghetti with Homemade Tomato Sauce & Meatballs

This is a pretty time consuming meal (compared to pasta out of a box and tomato sauce out of a jar) mostly because of all of the parts that you have to make. But let me assure you, it's well worth the work and the wait.

The sauce you can make ahead of time and use for multiple dishes and you can cut the zucchini spaghetti strips ahead of time as well. I like to bake our meatballs, rather than cooking them on the stove; when you're cooking the sauce and the zucchini, you don't have much stove space leftover anyway. Zucchini makes an awesome substitute for other kinds of pasta dishes, too. I'll have a zucchini lasagna recipe post coming up soon.

{my tomatoes, ready to go}

{tomato sauce, cooking}

For the Tomato Sauce:
adapted from the Smitten Kitchen recipe and serves 4
10 medium-large ripe fresh tomatoes
5 tablespoons (70 grams) unsalted butter
1 medium-sized yellow onion, peeled and halved
Salt to taste

1. Bring a big pot of water to a boil (it should have enough water to cover all of the tomatoes). Once boiling, immerse the the tomatoes in the water for 1 minute, then pour the water and tomatoes in a strainer and rinse the tomatoes with cold water. You should be able to slip the peels off of the tomatoes easily. Peel and core the tomatoes.

2. Put the tomatoes, onion and butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Bring the sauce to a simmer then lower the heat to keep the sauce at a slow, steady simmer for about 45 minutes, or until droplets of fat float free of the tomatoes. Stir occasionally, crushing the tomatoes against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon. Remove from heat, discard the onion, add salt to taste and keep warm while you prepare your pasta.

For the Meatballs:
serves 5-6
1 lb. ground turkey or ground bison (ground beef = pink slime)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup almond meal
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese (from a block--not pre-grated, that's starchy!)
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
1 large egg, lightly beaten
salt & pepper

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Combine meat, garlic, almond meal, cheese, basil, eggs, 2 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper in a bowl. Mix together with your hands (I suppose you could use a pastry cutter, I just find this to be the easiest way) until completely mixed. Roll into 1-inch balls, and transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet.

2. Bake for 16-20 minutes, until meatballs are cooked through, but juicy.

For the Zucchini Spaghetti: 
1 medium zucchini per person (I used 3 so there would be extra)

1. Cut the zucchini into thin slices, then slice into thin strips (unless you have a magical machine that will do this for you, which I don't).

2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Once boiling, put in the zucchini and cook for 30 seconds, then pour into a strainer. It's important not to overcook these, or they won't have the right pasta-like consistency.

3. Put everything together, sprinkle some basil and shredded parmesan and have a delicious meal!