MEAT BALLS

My son went very quiet this morning when I was cooking lunch ... which is never good.  I called a couple of times ...nothing.  I popped my head into the sitting room to find him on my newly upholstered sofa holding an open jar of peanut butter ... it was all over his face and hands ...

I calmly walked towards him, any quick movements could cause the covered hands to make contact with the sofa.

They did.  I spent the rest of the morning cleaning the sofa.

At least they enjoyed the meatballs for lunch.

 

MEAT BALLS - Serves 4

Ingredients for sauce

1 Medium onion, 2 Cloves of garlic (grated), 1 Teaspoon of chilli flakes, 10 Mil of red wine vinegar, 800g Chopped tinned tomatoes, 2 Teaspoons of sugar, 2 Tablespoons of chopped parsley, Grated parmesan, Salt and pepper

Other Ingredients

16 meat balls, 400g spaghetti

• Start with making the tomato sauce.  Chop the onion and place in saucepan with some olive oil, cook for a couple of minutes on medium heat till the onion is cooked through
• Add the garlic and chilli, stir for one minute
• Pour in the red wine vinegar stir for 20 seconds as vinegar evaporates
• Add the tinned tomatoes, sugar, salt and pepper and simmer for 10 minutes
• Add the parsley and then blend the sauce, i use a hand held blender and blend in saucepan, once blended the sauce is done
• When you are ready to cook the dish, put the spaghetti on to boil
• Preheat a saucepan and add the meat balls with some olive oil, move them around the saucepan on medium heat for about five minutes till they are brown on all sides and cooked though
• Heat up the sauce and mix in 50g of grated parmesan 
• Once the spaghetti is cooked, drain and mix in enough sauce to the spaghetti to suit your taste
• Divide spaghetti between four bowls and add four meat balls to each bowl
• Sprinkle grated parmesan over the top and enjoy

Cooking notes

I normally make the sauce in advance so there is less mess when you cook the dish.  If I don;t have fresh parsley I use frozen, Waitrose do a great one.

I don’t like a huge amount of sauce on my spaghetti, by adding the sauce to the spaghetti you can save any left overs in the fridge for a couple of days to put on pasta when you need a quick meal.

Adapting

For a child friendly version leave out the chilli flakes.

 

Comments

[Minty]

Thanks for this and also I never knew you could get frozen herbs/ could freeze herbs so will be investigating that