One Inmate’s Legacy

 

Would you love to have most authentic, delicious Italian spaghetti recipe ever? I suspect you might. Even if you have a favorite recipe already, it never hurts to try new things right? Last week as I was making a huge batch of spaghetti, I thought to myself…why not share it on the blog? My blog is not merely a place to share my story and my art, but it is a place to share things I love…and I LOVE this recipe. So…if you are interested (and if you’re not, it’s still a great story) read on because I’ve got a recipe for you and you will never guess where I got it.

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Several weeks ago I wrote about the many jobs I’ve had over the years, one of them being a correctional officer at Utah State Prison. In that post, I shared some of the lessons I learned while working there. Of the things I learned, the one that thing resonates with me the most, is that people are people—-regardless. We all have a story, some of it good and some of it bad. Sometimes we have a little more of one and less of the other, and that definitely plays a role in which side of the fence we fall. As I was going through the officer training academy, our instructors would remind us regularly that

There is a fine line between the criminal and cop. One bad choice and you could end up on wrong side.

Keeping this tucked in the back of mind definitely made my job more manageable and allowed me to have decent working relationships with many of the inmates. It also got me access to one hell of a recipe.

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The Cop’s Wife

She was an inmate….I don’t remember her name but she was a cop’s wife… she was serving a sentence for forgery… and she was Italian.

As an officer, it was definitely not standard practice to “visit” with the inmates but considering you are sometimes their only link to the outside world, they enjoy talking to you. I have no idea how the conversation got started but one day, this particular inmate shared with me a bit of her heritage–a bit of the ‘good‘ in her life. She shared with me her grandmother’s original and authentic recipe for spaghetti that compares to no other I’ve tried. She wrote it from memory on a piece of notebook paper and, although I probably shouldn’t have, I took it…and now I’ll share it with you.

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The following recipe is an exact copy of what was written on the piece of paper she gave to me. The measurements are not exact and the directions aren’t fancy but you get the idea. I’ve made it many, many times over the years…sometimes I’ll leave out the ground sausage but I ALWAYS make the meatballs.

Grandma Mastonarids Spaghetti and Meatballs

Download a Printable Recipe Here

Ingredients:

Sauce:

• 4 Lg. cans tomato puree (28 oz. or so)
• 2 Lg. cans stewed tomatoes
• 1 head garlic
• 8-10 sweet Italian sausages
• Extra virgin olive oil
• ½ container basil
• ½ – 1 C. sugar
• Parmesan cheese
• Romano cheese for serving

Meat Balls:

• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 ½ lb. ground pork-not seasoned
• ½- 1 can Italian bread crumbs
• 1 C. parmesan cheese
• 3 eggs
• ½ container basil
• 2 cloves Garlic
• Garlic salt & pepper

Directions:

Sauce:

In a deep pot, add enough olive oil to coat the bottom of the pan, lightly brown sausages. Add 4 of the garlic cloves, minced. Cook 1 minute, do not brown. Add puree & tomatoes. For each can of puree, add ½ can of water. Add to sauce. Bring to a soft boil, stirring often. Add meatballs, cook until done. 1 ½ – 2 hours. Simmering the sauce all day is best. Add basil and sugar when meatballs are done. Add parmesan cheese. Stir well. When serving, use finely grated Romano cheese on to top.

* Freeze extra sauce not used after 2 days.

Meatballs:

Mix all ingredients well. Add bread crumbs until it doesn’t feel soggy. Form into balls, add to simmering sauce that has already been started.

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Boom! There you have it….my favorite spaghetti recipe ever, smuggled right out of the Utah State Penitentiary. I hope you try it, I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you appreciate the story. Like I said, we all have a some good and we all have some bad. Hopefully you share more of the good in the legacy you leave behind.

Many of you have shared with me your favorite way to prepare and eat spaghetti, all of them as wonderful I’m sure BUT I want to hear from you….will you give this one a try? Or do you have one that is better? Would you share it?