Ok so I wanna be up front. I didn’t make these meatballs myself.
So I cheated, but this turns what would have been a bit of a palaver into a 30 minute week night meal.
I made the sauce myself, and obviously I cooked the spaghetti myself so that makes up for it – right? The true star of this dish wasn’t really the meatballs anyway, it was the sauce.
Often when I make tomato sauces they can be bitter, this time I followed these steps and I think it made a huge difference:
- I bought better quality tinned tomatoes, ones that were organic and Italian
- I filled the tomato tin about half full of water and swirled it round to get all the leftover bits and added it to the sauce
- I added about two tablespoons of pasta water to the sauce, adding starchy water, according to Nigella, allows the sauce to thicken further.
The last two I stole from Nigella, again. I think I have a foodie crush!
Meatballs with Tomato and Garlic Sauce
- Homemade or ready made meatballs, I used 5 per person
- 1 chopped onion
- 1 garlic clove, grated
- 1 tin of organic italian chopped tomatoes
- 1/2 tin of water from the tin
- 2 teaspoons of rice vinegar, although cider or white wine vinegar maybe better
- 2 teaspoons of agave syrup, although any sugar or sugar substitute would work
- 1 tablespoon of tomato paste
- 75 – 100 grams of uncooked spaghetti per person
- 2 tablespoons of water from the cooked pasta
Add the meatballs, onions and garlic to a pan under a medium heat. Once the meatballs start to brown on all sides add the tin of tomatoes and then the water from the tin. Stir well.
Stir in the vinegar, sugar and tomato paste. Turn down the heat a little and leave to simmer, while you cook the spaghetti as per the packet instructions.
Once the pasta is ready spoon out two tablespoons of water and stir into the sauce, then drain the pasta.
Plate the pasta and pour over sauce and meatballs. Enjoy.
I only recently started eating meatballs at all, after a wonderful recipe in GoodFood for Red Thai Meatballs Curry. Since then I have a kept at least one pack of meatballs in my freezer at all times.
Although I guess my next experiment has to be making them myself from scratch – wish me luck!