Exhausting weekend, each second of the day promised to an activity…Saturday morning  dress fittings for my sister’s wedding, followed by singing in a church service, followed by stage managing a Doo Wop show at the clubhouse…then up really early to sing 3 services on Sunday morning…and on the way home a stop at Whole Foods.  Once there, I felt the familiar tug to create a beautiful Sunday Dinner for my family.  So drifting over to the meat counter at Whole Foods,  I get the idea to make some gravy (the Italian pet name for pasta sauce), meatballs and homemade pasta.  At the meat counter I buy some nice ground pork, ground veal, and ground beef, 2 mild Italian sausages plus a nice pork rib to flavor my sauce.  I’m motivated despite being dead tired.  I don’t want to miss one moment of what’s left of my weekend, and that means cooking.

So here goes:

First: meatballs! Grass-fed ground veal, pork & beef for the best flavor.

Add minced shallots and garlic, an egg and seasoned breadcrumbs plus a little salt and pepper.

Mix together well, roll into meatballs.  I like them to be on the small side- less fattening this way!

ready for the frying pan

Once around the pan with some olive oil, then start frying the meatballs

At this point I add some mild Italian sausages to fry as well. My plan is to cut them into 3's so I have nice bite-sized pieces of sausage along with my little meatballs.

remove the meatballs and sausage and drain on a paper towel. Hmm a couple are missing...Mark strikes again!

And now it’s time to pour myself a nice glass of white wine.  But before I take a sip…

Add minced garlic and shallots and red pepper, saute for a minute then deglaze the pan with white wine.

I refill my glass a bit and continue with the meal.

After a couple of minutes of cooking off the wine, add a can of crushed San Marzano tomatoes, and a cup or two of chicken stock. Season with salt and pepper.

Bring to a boil, then add the meatballs and sausage.

Nice pork rib to flavor the sauce

OK, here's some pasta dough ready to be made into noodles.

OK, the homemade pasta is going to have to be a separate post all it’s own, another day soon, I promise.

I decide to make nice, wide spaghetti noodles. Here they are hanging out, ready to be added to boiling water.

OK, the sauce is ready. I remove the meats and dump in the pasta, add a little past water and I'm ready to serve.

Here's the finished dish, delicious! And...my husband loves me 🙂

And tomorrow….back to low point meals.  That’s what I love about Weight Watchers- you can have your nice weekend meal and enjoy it without guilt.  As long as you count your points and know that the rest of the week you have to be careful and stick to your guns.  Happy Sunday everyone!