By Mid-April. Sixteen weeks. The second trimester is finally arriving. The energy is starting to come back. The brain-fog of the first trimester is lifting. The household has been getting back to the small steady working-and-cooking-and-occasional-evening-walks rhythm that the first trimester had interrupted.
Sunday I made one-skillet spaghetti because Dustin had a paper for his HVAC-journeyman-exam study course due Tuesday and I had needed a single-pan dish that took twenty minutes and left the kitchen mostly clean. The dish is the kind of single-skillet pasta where the spaghetti cooks directly in the sauce in the same pan as the browned beef and the aromatics — no separate pot, no draining, no second-pan-cleanup.
The procedure: brown a pound of ground beef in a deep skillet with diced onion and four cloves of minced garlic. Stir in a teaspoon each of dried oregano, dried basil, and salt, a half-teaspoon of black pepper, a teaspoon of red pepper flakes. Add a twenty-eight-ounce can of crushed tomatoes, a small can of tomato paste, two cups of beef broth. Bring to a simmer. Break a pound of dry spaghetti in half and submerge in the sauce. Cover and simmer twenty minutes, stirring every five minutes so the spaghetti does not clump. Finish with a generous shower of parmesan and a handful of fresh basil from the windowsill. Dustin had three plates. I had two.
The recipe is the small Sunday-anchor in a small year of recipe-anchors. The Sunday-publish has been the small constant since I was fourteen and a freshman at Sapulpa High. The constancy is the small discipline. The small discipline is what makes the small kitchen-life sustainable.
The cafe’s small weekday-rhythm continues. Mama runs the small breakfast-and-brunch rotation. Cody runs the small lunch-and-dinner rotation. The small staff is the small extended family the cafe has built across the years.
One Skillet Spaghetti
Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cook Time: 25 minutes | Total Time: 30 minutes | Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef or ground turkey
- 1/2 yellow onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 jar (24 oz) marinara or spaghetti sauce
- 2 cups water or low-sodium chicken broth
- 8 oz spaghetti, broken in half
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
- Parmesan cheese, for serving
Instructions
- Brown the meat. In a large deep skillet over medium-high heat, cook the ground beef or turkey, breaking it up as it cooks, until no longer pink, about 6–8 minutes. Drain excess fat if needed.
- Soften the aromatics. Add the diced onion to the skillet and cook for 2–3 minutes until softened. Stir in the garlic and cook for 30 seconds more until fragrant.
- Add liquid and pasta. Pour in the jarred sauce and water (or broth). Stir in Italian seasoning, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes if using. Bring to a boil.
- Cook the spaghetti. Add the broken spaghetti to the skillet, pressing it down into the liquid. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 12–15 minutes, stirring every few minutes to keep the pasta from sticking, until spaghetti is tender and sauce has thickened.
- Serve. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve directly from the skillet with Parmesan cheese on top.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 480 | Protein: 32g | Fat: 14g | Carbs: 52g | Fiber: 4g | Sodium: 780mg