Growing up, making pasta for dinner meant boiling store-bought noodles ‘til they stuck to the wall, popping open a can of Prego, and viola! Spaghetti.

There’s nothing wrong with that, but I think it’s fun to make everything from scratch. Pasta noodles are just egg, flour and oil—they’re less expensive to make from scratch, it taste better and they only take about three minutes to cook (since they’re not dried and preserved), so it takes about the same amount of time to make.  Once you get the basics, you can vary the recipe to your taste.

This sauce is made with roasted garlic and Italian plum tomatoes and the meatballs are turkey, but they can also be made with beef, pork or chicken.

Ingredients for roasted garlic and mushroom pasta sauce:

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 3—5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 1—2 cups chopped baby bella mushrooms
• ¼ cup tomato paste
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon hot sauce
• ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1—2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 (28-ounce) cans whole plum tomatoes, with juices
• 3 whole garlic heads, roasted and mashed

To roast the garlic, preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Peel away the skin but then leave head intact. Cut ¼ inch off the pointy end of each head and place into a pan with the cut side facing up. Drizzle some olive oil over each head and cover pan with foil. Cook for 30 to 40 minutes.

In a large saucepan, sauté the onions and mushrooms in the olive oil over medium heat until softened (about 5 minutes). While they are cooking, in a bowl, measure out the tomato paste, salt, balsamic vinegar, hot sauce, red pepper, Italian seasoning and basil. Add the minced garlic to the onions and cook for a minute to release flavor, then add the ingredients that were just measured out. Cook for a couple minutes and stir into the onion/garlic mixture. Add the tomatoes, crushing with your hands as you place them in the pan with juices. Stir to combine and bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes.

When the garlic cloves are finished roasting, remove them from the oven and allow them to cool for a few minutes. Squeeze the cloves out of their skins and mash with a fork.

Add the roasted garlic to the sauce and stir to combine. Simmer for 45 minutes to an hour. Let sauce cool, place it in a bowl or a jar and let it sit in the fridge overnight for the best flavor.

Ingredients for meatballs:

• 1 large Portobello mushroom cap
• 1 shallot, chopped
• ¼ cup lightly packed fresh parsley
• 1 ½ pound package of lean ground turkey
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Scrape out the black gills of the mushroom with a spoon. If you have a food processor, use it to finely mince the mushroom, shallot and parsley together, otherwise, do it with a knife. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and add the ground turkey, olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper and gently mix with your hands until combined. Divide into several meatballs and place in a pan. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes or until centers of meatballs are cooked.

Ingredients for pasta:

• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour plus more for dusting
• 2 medium or large eggs
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• a pinch of salt
• a pinch of nutmeg
• a few teaspoons of water

This is the most challenging part of the recipe, but when you get it down, you will never buy pre-made pasta again. If you are new to this, it may be helpful to look up a video on YouTube for a visual demonstration of the technique.

Put the flour in a pile on the cutting board, and make a hole (or well), in the middle of the pile. Combine eggs, olive oil, salt and nutmeg in a bowl and whisk together.

Pour the egg mixture into the well and slowly mix flour from around the sides into the egg by pulling the egg with fingers. Do this as gradually as possible because it will not work otherwise.

When ingredients are combined, kneed until it is smooth-textured, firm and dry. It should stick to itself but nothing else. Add water conservatively if dough is too dry.

Divide into tennis ball size pieces, and cover with plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature for an hour to allow the gluten to relax. This will make the dough easier to work with.

While dough is relaxing, work on the pasta sauce.

Dust cutting board generously with flour and roll dough out as flat as possible, turning over and dusting with more flour.

Cut into 1/8 to1/4 inch strips.

To cook pasta, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add a tablespoon of salt, and a few tablespoons of olive oil to keep the noodles from sticking together. Drop the pasta into the boiling water and cook for 3 to 5 minutes. Don’t throw your pasta at the wall—it’s done when you pull a piece out and it tastes finished. Drain the pasta into a strainer.

Serve:

To time this meal, put the meatballs in the oven and start warming the sauce on the stove at around the same time you start boiling the water for the pasta. Place a few meatballs on a pile of pasta and cover in sauce. Serve with French bread and salad. Enjoy!