Joanna Gaines Makes a Homemade Version of This Nostalgic Canned Soup—And I Want It Weekly

It takes us right back to childhood.

A bite of certain foods transports me immediately back to my childhood in the 1990s. Juice-filled fruit snacks. Blue box mac and cheese. Any variation of those just-add-ground-beef "helper" meals. That cozy tomato soup with "O"-shaped pasta.

Turns out, I'm not alone; Joanna Gaines is right there with me. The multi-hyphenate Magnolia founder—who has roles ranging from mom and wife to "Fixer Upper" star, design expert, memoirist, and cookbook author—carved out time recently to recreate a recipe of one of her sentimental favorites: SpaghettiOs.

"I grew up eating the processed spaghetti and meatballs that came in a can, and the truth is that sometimes I find myself craving the meal. It takes me back to the basics of childhood," Gaines explains in "Magnolia Table, Volume 3." (By the way, this is her new cookbook that I purchased ASAP after seeing Gaines demonstrate the recipe on Instagram.)

"This is a take on one of my childhood favorites. Tomatoes, pasta, and a little bit of meat. If you know what I'm talking about, you know," Gaines says in the video, referring to the popular Campbell's creation.

She created her rendition of this classic recipe to see if Crew (her youngest of 5 kids with husband/co-star Chip) would take to it as well. Gaines admits in the cookbook that some of her most beloved recent meals involve sitting around eating big bowls of Os with her little one, who she lovingly called "my little sous chef" last summer.

"Whether or not he'll remember the meals," Gaines says, referring to her 4-year-old son, "they're ones I'll never forget."

Related: This Phased Out '90s Ingredient is Actually the Key to a Quick Weeknight Dinner

How to Make Crew's Spaghetti and Meatballs

To make Gaines' SpaghettiOs copycat recipe, you'll need a Dutch oven, a cast iron skillet, a bowl (for mixing the meatballs), and another pot for cooking the O-shaped pasta (which you can find in the pasta aisle or online labeled as Anellini pasta).

In the Dutch oven, start by sautéing diced yellow onion in butter. Add tomato sauce, tomato paste, and chicken stock. Stir to combine, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.

As that bubbles away for 20 minutes or so, grab that bowl and dive into the meatball prep. First, add panko breadcrumbs and milk, and stir to create a panade. Allow this to sit for about 5 minutes, then add ground beef, ground pork, diced yellow onion, shredded Parmesan cheese, an egg, some minced garlic, and chopped fresh basil. Perk things up with Italian seasoning, salt, and black pepper, then using clean hands, mix to evenly distribute each element. Roll this mixture into 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch balls. (Psst…if you swoon over meatballs as much as the stars of Lady and the Tramp, don't miss our 10 best Italian meatball recipes for all your spaghetti dinner needs.)

In the cast iron skillet, pour a drizzle of olive oil, then cook the meatballs on all sides until dark brown and crispy. If you have a smaller skillet, do this in two batches so you don't need to crowd the pan. Transfer the cooked meatballs to a paper towel-lined plate to drain.

Add the seared meatballs to the tomato mixture. Simmer for about 15 minutes more to cook the meatballs through. Simultaneously, cook the pasta according to the package directions.

Drain the pasta, stir it into the soup, and serve with bonus fresh basil if you like. (I definitely did!)

If you're following along with Gaines' Instagram demo, be sure to watch it to the end. She playfully wraps up the clip by eating the final bite out of a large glass mixing bowl and gleefully dropping the spoon into the empty vessel. "Mmm," she exclaims, and after taking my first bite of my copycat of her copycat, I wholeheartedly agree. Now I just need some of that heat-and-eat garlic bread.