A new twist

My friend was somewhat offended when I referred to her pasta dishes as an Eritrean twist on classic Italian.  She insisted that her lasagna and spaghetti were "regular" and I insisted that they were far too savory to pass for Italian. 

We hosted a Girl Scout iftar on Monday and spaghetti was on the menu.  I agreed to make meatballs to make it a bit more hearty but I knew they needed to compliment the flavor of her spaghetti rather than be a typical Italian meatball.  The good thing is that although we would be serving Arabs & Indo-Paks, both cultures are familiar with a form of meatball so I felt confident that people would eat them. 

The kicker is I don't eat meatballs and have never made them but I didn't tell her that because I didn't want her to panic.  I thoroughly enjoyed the meatloaf I made so I essentially used the same recipe, substituting Italian seasonings for the onion soup mix and adding fried onions.  On Sunday my mother and I mixed 26 pounds of freshly ground beef which produced 360 meatballs.  Monday I cooked them on convection roast for about 20 minutes per batch (I checked each tray with a temperature probe to confirm doneness).  While they were cooking I simmered a savory sauce based on her recipe. 

Alhamdulilah, the food was a hit and this will be our new menu for our annual iftar.  What's more, she acknowledged that her sauce was a bit ethnic and we both agreed that worked out just fine for the crowd

As a bonus we were able to feed 80 homeless people the following day with the leftover pasta and fresh salad.  That's what Ramadan is all about!