Everyone loves spaghetti. That’s a given. It’s a staple for Sunday evenings with the family. It’s an easy meal for the kids after school. The leftovers are as good or better than the first time. One of the more popular ways is with a rich meaty sauce. The Italian Bolognese is a one of the more popular pasta sauces

Right across the Adriatic Sea, lies Greece and Makaronia me Kima. These two pasta dishes might just be long-lost cousins separated by geography. They are united by their love for pasta and meaty goodness. At their core, both Makaronia me Kima and Bolognese sauce are all about the savoriness of ground meat.

They may look similar, but the use of warm spices in Kima is instantly recognizable. The addition of cinnamon and clove really transforms this into a completely different dish.

For a few months, I had a Makaronia me Kima recipe planned. Last week, I had a free day, a bushel of fresh tomatoes, and a craving for pasta.

Instead of my planned traditional version of it. I will do that in due time. I decided to take full advantage of my fresh tomatoes. I wanted to roast them up. That took twist also. Once at the grocery store, I decided to use a meat substitute as it was on sale. In my fridge, a lonely carrot called out to me. I used that also. I felt experimental.

The result is a fresh tomato and beyond meat Kima. You can’t tell the meat was plant based at all. The heartiness of the sauce and spices completely masks the fact that it is not real meat. It was fantastic. Now, I do love the real meat, but this turned out just as good.

Here’s the recipe:

MEATLESS MAKARONIA ME KIMA WITH ROASTED TOMATOES

• 24 oz plant based ground meat like Beyond or Impossible
• 5 lb fresh tomatoes cut up in large chunks. See photos for the size
• 1-2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
• 1 tbsp kosher salt
• 1 19 oz jar of tomato passata
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1 large onion finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic finely chopped
• 1 carrot finely chopped
• 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
• 3 whole cloves
• 2 bay leaves. I used fresh from my tree.
• 1 tsp ground oregano
• 2 sprigs of thyme
• 3 allspice berries
• 1/3 cup parsley chopped
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1 tsp black pepper
• salt as needed
• 1 lb spaghetti
• grated mizithra

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cut the tomatoes into large chunks. Put them in a large bowl. Add a good sized glug of olive oil. Also add a tablespoon of salt, pepper, and a couple cloves of chopped garlic. Finally, add a tablespoon or two of pomegranate molasses. I added the pomegranate molasses for a touch of sweet caramelization. You can substitute a small bit of balsamic vinegar also.

Toss the tomatoes until it’s evenly coated and pour into a sheet pan. I put all of them skin side down to start with. Looked cool for the photo!

Roast tomatoes for about 50 minutes, tossing every 15 minutes or so. Near the end, the tomatoes will break down quite a bit and start to turn into a paste. Make sure to keep an eye on it. It should not burn as the edges of the pan brown up. Fantastic flavor!

Near the end of roasting, in a large skillet or saucepan, saute the onions in olive oil until translucent. I also added the carrot to let it cook a bit. Then add the other two cloves of garlic and cook for 30 seconds or so.

Add the meat and warm spices at this time. I saved the green herbs until later. I added the meat, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and black pepper. I made sure to break up the meat to have a consistent consistency and cooked for a couple minutes. Vegetable based meats really don’t need to brown much in this sauce.

Once heated through, I added the wine and tomatoes from the sheet pan. At this point, the tomatoes was closer to a thin paste with a roasted flavor. Mmmm.

I added the oregano, thyme, bay leaves with the tomatoes. I then began to add the jar of tomato passata until I got the consistency I wanted. I would have been fine with 3/4 of the jar, but i just added it all. It was still nice and thick.

I let that simmer on low for about an hour to meld the flavors.

Cook the noodles according the directions to get an al dente pasta.

Serve the noodles, top with the meat sauce and top that with a snowfall of grated mizithra. Have some garlic bread with that and go to town.

The warmth of the flavors is so comforting on a Sunday evening!.

An optional way to serve it is to place the pasta in a baking dish. Sprinkle a touch of cinnamon on it. Place the sauce over the noodles. Top with mizithra. Bake in a 350 oven for about 30 minutes. It turns it into a kind of casserole.

Either way, this is a must have if you want to get into exploring Greek cooking.

OPA!