Today I’ve been cooking through my grief over my beautiful dog Sawdust who passed away two days ago after a long and full life. After a day of being completely useless after he was gone, I knew I had to cook. It keeps me in motion. I think, as opposed to my other creative outlets, that is what I need.

I’m making two kinds of red sauce for freezing in portions. Puttanesca with harvest vegetables, and then a more traditional marinara which I’ll also use for my meatballs. I’m making those today too. So anyhow, I came across this illustration I did a while back and thought it might be handy for someone.

My illustration below doesn’t match the other image because I like slower cooking, but the image of the book is my kitchen notes that I go from. The illustration below reflects what I actually do. The ratio is the important part. Happy to advise anyone who has specific questions about size of meatball to oven temp, as well as whether to cook in the sauce. That’s all about preference and tradition.