Super Easy Four Ingredient Spaghetti and Meatballs
First off, let me just say this is one of my kids’ favorite meals, and since it’s also a very easy meal to make it’s one of my favorites too! Plus they end up eating a lot of spinach without mentioning anything about yucky green stuff which makes it even better. Ok, here goes (pay attention, ’cause this is gonna go quick)! You need:
- 1 package bulk Italian Sausage (My family likes the mild version, but feel free to use the sweet or hot instead).
- 1 jar Spaghetti Sauce (I like Barilla – use whichever brand you prefer. If you want to be fancy you could use a sauce with sausage in it).
- 1 clamshell package fresh baby spinach (I think its about 10oz. but more or less won’t hurt and you could even use a box of frozen spinach instead).
- 1/2 box of your favorite pasta (if you’re going to use the full box, double the rest of the ingredients).
Roll the bulk sausage into meatballs. The easiest way to do this is to score the meat with a knife in the packaging, going vertically and horizontally with about an inch between each line. Then just grab a square of meat at a time and roll it up into a ball. This will give you uniformly sized meatballs that will cook evenly.
Cook the meatballs in a dutch oven or other deep pan over medium high heat. Turn the meatballs after a few minutes so that they brown on all sides. If the meatballs don’t release from the bottom of the pan and turn easily, wait a minute more and try again.
While you’re cooking the meatballs chop the spinach into little pieces, and after the meatballs are browned add the chopped spinach and stir well. If you’d like to take out some of the fat you could remove the meatballs from the pan (drain them on paper towels on a plate) and pour out the excess fat, then add the meatballs and spinach back into the pan.
Once the spinach is wilted add the jar of sauce, along with a little bit of water (I throw in about 1/2 a jar of water).
Simmer the sauce and meatballs for about 10 minutes, until the sauce has reduced and thickened some and the meatballs are cooked through.
Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to the package directions.
When both the sauce and pasta are done, drain the pasta and either plate it up with the sauce or mix it together with the sauce and meatballs and then serve it. I have a child who likes his noodles plain on the side so I don’t mix the meatballs and sauce with the pasta, but its nice if you do mix it because then all of the pasta ends up evenly coated with sauce.
I find that I don’t need to season the meatballs and sauce with salt and pepper, but you can try them and adjust the seasonings to your tastes.
16 Comments on “Super Easy Four Ingredient Spaghetti and Meatballs”
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Great idea…making meatballs with Italian Sausage! Will have to try that! Please come by and link up at “Pin it Again” Friday (http://wp.me/p2TL9t-16Q). It goes live today at 3:00 PST.
Link up your SPECIFIC Pinterest Pin for this recipe and others can see it and pin it their pin boards. And, while you are here, stay awhile and pins others great ideas on your boards as well! Blessings!
Thanks Diane – I’ll link up there – thanks for the invite!
Great idea and huge time saver. Looks great!
We would like to invite you share this at our party. It is live now: http://thebusybhive.blogspot.com/
Thanks!
The Busy Bee’s,
Myrna and Joye.
My family loves spaghetti and meatballs as well. I usually add mushrooms, but the spinach is an added veggie so I’ll have to add them instead next time!
I’ll add mushrooms next time!
Thanks for sharing at What’d You Do This Weekend. This is a simple and delicious sounding dish. Its almost dinner time. I bet I have all the ingredients. YAY! 🙂 Linda
I don’t usually make meatballs because I’m not a huge fan of beef, and I never want to take the time to add the spices needed to transform the flavor. I have no idea why I never thought to use sausage. What a great idea. My meat-craving husband thanks you!
You’re welcome! I know I felt like a superhero when I realized I could use sausage and not have to mix in anything else. Hope you all like it!
Sausage is great in pasta! Thanks for sharing on Tried and True Recipes! http://rediscovermom.blogspot.com/2013/04/tried-and-true-recipes-7.html
Hi Meghan! Thanks for linking up to our Strut Your Stuff Saturday. We would love to have you share some recipes on our new sister blog – MyRecipeMagic.com. We just launched it in January. It calculates nutrition and weight watcher points. It is another way to drive traffic back to your blog. Come and check it out! -The Six Sisters
Thank you for the invite – I don’t know if I’d like to know the weight watchers points for this recipe 😉
Ooh boy, now I’m craving spaghetti and meatballs for dinner.. 🙂 Thanks for sharing! I’ll have to try making it this way!
Thanks for stopping by!
Spinach is super delicious. I think it should be added to EVERYTHING! Great idea to add it to spaghetti. Why didn’t I think of that…???
🙂
hugs x
Crystelle
Crystelle Boutique
Thanks Crystelle – I love it too! As a kid I kind of hated it but now I think maybe I just never had it prepared right.
Love the addition of spinach in here – great way to sneak in some vitamins for my kiddos. This looks yummy!
I’d love for you to share this with us at Living Well Spending Less today in our Thrifty Thursday link party! http://www.livingwellspendingless.com/category/thrifty-thursday/