Best Ever Pasta and Meatballs

This is a really delicious dish. It is one of these treat weekend dinners that makes you feel as if you are not missing out on tasty restaurant food. The kids absolutely love it! It does take quite a while to prep but is worth the time and effort…It’s also one of the reasons I always make enough for 8 portions, so there’s plenty to freeze and just reheat when you fancy some mind blowing food in record time.

I love serving this with pizza garlic bread bread/https://foodblog371417604.com/2020/05/04/garlic-pizza-bread/

Ingredients: makes 8 portions

For the meatballs :

• 1 kg minced beef
• 100 g white breadcrumbs
• 2 crushed garlic cloves
• 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 120 g grated Parmesan cheese
• About 5 tablespoons milk
• Salt and pepper
• And extra olive oil for frying them off

Pasta: For 4 people

• 400-500 g Pappardelle or Tagliatelle
• 25 g butter diced

For the Tomato sauce:

• 1 kg passata (approx. 1.5 large bottles)
• 4 finely chopped onions
• 4 finely chopped celery sticks
• 4 crushed garlic cloves
• A good lug of olive oil (approx. 6 tablespoons)
• 1/2 glass of white wine
• A glass of water
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• Pepper

Method for the tomato sauce:

1. Gently heat the olive oil in a deep casserole type pan and fry the onion and celery until they have softened (approx. 15 minutes). Add the garlic and cook for a minute. Then add all the remaining tomato sauce ingredients and simmer for 10 minutes.

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Method for the meatballs

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl. I do this by hand to mix everything up. Then flour your hands and gently shape into ping pong size balls. Don’t compact them too much or they may end up tough. You should end up with approximately 28-32 meatballs.

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2. Heat a few tablespoons in a frying pan on a medium to high heat and fry off the meatballs – this is just to brown them off, not to cook them through completely as this stage. Do this in batches, or in 2 large frying pans so the meatballs properly brown and caramelise on the sides rather than stew. Keep rotating them so they don’t burn!

3. Once browned add the meatballs to the tomato sauce, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes. Add extra water if the sauce begins to dry.

4. Cook the pasta in a large pan of salted water, drain, dot with butter and serve with the meatball sauce on top.

5. I like garnishing with fresh basil and extra Parmesan cheese (and a slice of garlic pizza bread)

6. Enjoy 🙂

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Hope you enjoy making this! Leave me a comment if you give it a try. Thank you for reading 🙂