Tonight we wanted to have pasta but couldn’t decide whether to have spaghetti and meatballs (Alex’s choice) or pasta all’amatriciana (Max’s choice).  So we decided to make both.  Then, because its apple season and our friends Russ and Erica had given us some excellent apples (that they picked while cycling upstate), we decided to make an apple pie.  Mom helped out by making a pear/walnut/cranberry/goat cheese salad.  Dad was out of town…he missed a good meal.

Apple Pie

After we made the pastry and put it in the fridge to chill, we peeled and sliced 6 apples.  Then we tossed them with cinnamon, a little sugar and flour.  If you are using tart apples, you might need more sugar but ours were pretty sweet.  Then we put the apples in the pastry shell and rolled out the pasty top.  We decided to be fancy and used a star shaped cookie cutter to cut out stars in the pastry top.

Then we draped the star-cut pastry over the apples and brushed it lightly with egg wash (beaten egg with a little water).  We also glued a few of the cut out stars to the top with the egg wash to give it a little 3 D effect.  Then it was in the oven at 425 degrees for 15 minutes.  We lowered the temp to 350 degrees and let it cook for another 35 minutes.

Pasta Two Ways

Meatballs Part 1

For the pasta, first we made the meatballs.  This was just a quick throw together recipe based on what we had in the fridge, which included a pound of ground meat, 1/3 cup panko bread crumbs, 1/3 cup grated parmesan, 1 egg and salt & pepper.  We also make them with ground turkey sometimes.  We made little bit size meat balls, and put them in the fridge to chill.

All’Amatriciana Part 1

While the meatballs were chilling, we started on the amatricana.  We sauteed chopped pancetta until crispy, removed it from the pan and then sauteed a chopped white onion until it was very translucent.  Then we scooped out 1/4 of the onions to use with the meatballs.  Then it was back to the Meatballs…

Meatballs Part 2

So for the meatballs, we sauteed them in olive oil till they were brown all over, then we added the 1/4 cup onions we reserved, plus tomato sauce and a little water.  We just let them cook for a bit while we finished the other pasta.

All’Amatriciana Part 2

For the All’Amatriciana, had to make the sauce: we added chopped tomatoes to the onions and let simmer and reduce.  Then we combined it with the pasta, sprinkled pancetta on top and grated fresh parmesan on top of that.