“This recipe can go from casual to complicated,” says Ronga. “If you haven’t been to the grocery store and you’re living off pantry staples, you can still make it.” While this is a great time to break out the pasta maker, Ronga says you don’t need any special equipment—she used an empty wine bottle to roll out pasta dough when she first moved to the North End.
With such a flexible recipe, you can also swap in store-bought sauce, dried pasta, or your own favorite ingredients, says Ronga. Otherwise, make a day of it. “The meatballs, the homemade pasta, the sauce . . . they make this a little bit more advanced. It’s something you could dress up a bit more and have fun experimenting with.”