In Episode 9, GIRLS MAKE FIRES, guest Rachel Belle tells me that she always christens a new home by making spaghetti and meatballs for herself, often too late at night. I recently moved home into my very own place and made this dish for myself, inspired by her. I ate it whilst I was sitting on the floor, as I didn't have my dining table unpacked and it was such a great solo-cook's staple dish and such a lovely way to greet a new house. Meatballs can be kind of annoying to make but are always worth it. I've given you three options. One is a veggie meatball recipe, the other is a meat meatball recipe and the third is a cheat's way to make quick meatballs.
Makes: Enough sauce and mince for 6 meatballs. I would personally say 3 meatballs is enough for one portion, so the idea for this recipe is to have one portion for now and one portion for delicious leftovers tomorrow.
Time: 50 - 60 minutes.
Faff Level: Quite high. I'd say at least an 8 because of all the steps and also because it does take quite a long time to get a good pasta sauce. Don't let that put you off though, the recipe itself is easy.
Ingredients:
For the sauce - this is for a not very saucey sauce. if you want it more saucey, add another half punnet of small, good tomatoes.
1/2 can of tomato
1 small punnet of good, baby tomatoes - when I say ‘good’ I don’t mean well behaved, I mean don’t use anaemic-looking tomatoes that look like they have never seen sunlight.
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1 small clove of garlic, finely chopped
Handful of basil
Pinch of sugar
Salt
Pepper
For the meatballs -
MEATY MEATBALLS
200 g mince meat
1 chopped spring onions
thumbnail sized piece of garlic, chopped
big bunch of finely chopped parsley (throw the stalks in too)
1 egg
50 g bread, roughly pulled apart ideally sourdough
2 pinches of nutmeg
a bit of chilli
salt and pepper to taste
glug of olive oil
lemon juice and zest of half a lemon
VEGGIE MEATBALLS
200 g veggie mince
1 chopped spring onions
thumbnail sized piece of garlic, chopped
big bunch of finely chopped parsley (throw the stalks in too)
1 eggs
25 g bread, roughly pulled apart ideally sourdough
2 pinches of nutmeg
a bit of chilli
salt and pepper to taste
glug of olive oil
lemon juice and zest of half a lemon
QUICK MEATBALLS - I'd say this is a more expensive way of doing things, but it is quicker than making meatballs from scratch. Just buy 300 g of burgers/burger alternatives and roll them out into meatballs. They still require frying or grilling for 15 minutes before going in the sauce, but I'd say this shaves at least 15 minutes off your total cooking time.
Directions:
1. Make your pasta sauce first. On a high heat, fry the onions first until browned.
2. Once browned, turn down the heat and add in the chopped garlic and fry for a few minutes, ensuring that the garlic doesn’t burn.
3. Add in all of the baby tomatoes, until they start to go soft and look like they are about to pop out of their skins. You will notice you didn't cut them first, not slicing the tomatoes saves you time and they seem to retain their flavour more.
4. Once the tomatoes are all soft and can be squashed easily with the back of a spoon, turn the heat down slightly and throw in the can of tomatoes, basil, sugar, salt and pepper and simmer for 30 minutes. Turn off after time's up and wait for your spaghetti and meatballs.
5. Whilst your sauce is cooking, make your meatballs. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl depending on which recipe you are using.
6. Get stuck in with your hands and mix all the meatball ingredients together. Shape into balls, I would say divide your mixture into 6 which.
7. Grill or fry your balls for 15 minutes. If you're using a grill, grill at 200 degrees C, if you're frying, go for a high heat.
8. Boil some spaghetti! I would say the perfect amount for one hungry person is 114 g - I always weigh my spaghetti so I don't have an offensive amount of leftovers.
9. Once the sauce is cooked, the spaghetti is drained and the meatballs are ready, add the meatballs to the sauce, then add the spaghetti. Mix well, add a bit more seasoning and maybe some extra basil. Great copious amounts of parmesan over the top. Enjoy!
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