Marinara and Meatballs

A few weeks ago, knowing that the summer was coming to an end, I became obsessed with tomatoes. Winter tomatoes just make me mad. At my local greenmarket, a plethora of tomatoes were being offered. I sought out a four-pound bag of plum tomatoes for only $4 ($1 a pound! Amazing!) and headed home to make a slow-roasted marinara sauce.

I quartered the tomatoes and placed them in a dutch oven with a bunch of garlic cloves, a good glug of extra virgin olive oil, salt, and lots of freshly ground black pepper.

I stirred the sauce every once in a while and towards the end, added fresh torn basil. After hanging out in a 375-degree oven for about 1 1/2 hours, this is what it looked like:

I made beef meatballs using 96/4 ground beef. The first number refers to the percent of muscle, or lean meat; the second indicates the percent of fat. The higher the first number, the less fat in the meat. This is the leanest form of beef I have ever seen (available at Trader Joe's), and since I thought the deep flavor of beef would contrast nicely with the fresh roasted tomatoes, I opted for the red meat instead of ground turkey breast, which is what I typically use for meatballs.

Combine the ground meat with oregano, basil (you can use dried or fresh herbs), minced garlic, minced onion, salt, and pepper. Roll into any size you prefer, and saute in a small amount of oil until browned on the outside and cooked through.

Spoon the sauce over the pasta, add meatballs, sprinkle with parmigiano reggiano cheese, and you have yourself a great way to use up and enjoy all of those summer tomatoes!