Italian food is so simple to make for me. I probably have a lot of learned intuition from watching my family cook, but when writing down these recipes, there truly are not that many steps. When you see ingredients written down, many authors will omit water and salt because these are staples of cooking that should be assumed. In Italian cooking, salt, pepper, garlic, and onion should be assumed; I hardly count those as ingredients. It doesn’t even have to be fresh; you should have garlic powder and onion powder in your spice cabinet at all times. Maybe you look at this list and think it’s seven items, but to me, it barely counts as a recipe because it’s just tomatoes and seasonings.
You should make your tomato sauce because canned tomatoes are dirt cheap compared to buying prepared tomato sauce. If you’re making meatballs to go with it, you can easily multitask and prepare these dishes alongside each other. You’ll probably want onions and garlic for your meatballs, too, so you can cook them together and split the portion between the sauce and the meatballs. Then, you can put the tomatoes on before you form the meatballs and have them simmer in the background the whole time while they’re baking. When the meatballs are halfway done, boil water for your pasta, and all three will be ready right around the same time. I would say a typical 28oz can of tomatoes will lightly cover a full box of spaghetti. Often, grocery stores will sell the 14.5oz cans for discounts if you buy three, which to me is the perfect amount for a full box, but try it and make your own judgment.
