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Saturday, December 5, 2009

Spaghetti and Meatballs


After the Party....

so it was Sarah's birthday and we had a party, there's was enough mess and chaos to lead me to believe we were all 16 again, raiding your parents drinks cabinet, and drinking the concoction of 6 different spirits mixed into a coke bottle.


Let's just say some of my plants were quite the worse for wear afterwards, including the basil and chili plant, so based on this unplanned harvest I made this nice meal, and fed it to my brother who was visiting before returning to his home in the snowy French alps.

Ingredients -
sauce
1 white onion - finely diced
12 tomatoes - skinned if you prefer and then diced

nice bunch of home-grown basil

1 home grown chili

2 cloves of garlic crushed
1 pound of minced beef

1 large potato - mashed

1 egg

marjoram and thyme (fresh or dried)

Grated Parmesan - a grand old lump - grated

a cup of breadcrumbs
Spaghetti cooked to your liking - my secret confession is I like mini squishy - very non-foodie I know!


I made the sauce first and let that cook away while I made the meatballs and then spaghetti while I cooked the meatballs. Fry the onion up in some olive oil for a minute or two before adding the garlic and sliced chili - cook it all until, it's softened nicely - then add in your tomatoes. Season. Bring to a gentle simmer and cover.

Cook for about 30-40 mins until it's thickened up nicely, it's perfectly ok to use tinned tomatoes here, I just had lots of tomatoes that day. I always add in a small teaspoon of sugar to sauces made using tinned tomatoes.


In a clean bowl - mix together the meat, breadcrumbs, grated Parmesan, herbs and mashed potato. Season. Then bind it all together with the egg. This made about 16 meatballs, and three is a big serving, so have some for tomorrow - make your own Meatball subs if you fancy.

Roll each bit of mixture into golf ball sized balls, then coat them in the breadcrumbs.
Heat some oil in a pan and cook your meatballs in batches of around 5 or so. Turn gently and brown evenly on as many sides as you can. Serve them on top of a bowl of spaghetti and topped with some of your tomato sauce. These were just super and perfect for a Sunday night in by the fire.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Lucy! The blog is super...been keeping an eager hungry eye on it...cooked up this dish for 40 recently and it was a hit! Well done to u both! Lorna x

Lu said...

Wow - you cooked for 40 fair play!!Delighted you used one of our recipes - and thanks for the compliment, hope Belrin is treating you well, think I might be over for Melt in July