{"id":1374,"date":"2010-07-15T13:54:51","date_gmt":"2010-07-15T05:54:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/?p=1374"},"modified":"2010-07-22T09:57:58","modified_gmt":"2010-07-22T01:57:58","slug":"spaghettini-with-meatballs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/spaghettini-with-meatballs\/","title":{"rendered":"Spaghettini with meatballs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Throughout my childhood and many of my teenage years I was a\u00a0competitive swimmer.\u00a0 This meant that I consumed large quantities of\u00a0complex carbohydrates to fuel my body for\u00a0the long training hours.\u00a0 One of the most frequent things that\u00a0I used to eat was pasta.\u00a0 I think\u00a0that was because it was something the whole family could enjoy\u00a0which made it\u00a0easy for Mum to prepare.\u00a0 Spaghetti bolognaise was\u00a0a regular meal and Mum used to make a delicious version.<\/p>\n

These days G & I tend not to eat a lot of pasta, not for any particular reason, it’s just something that I don’t tend to cook very\u00a0often.\u00a0\u00a0Recently I decided to expand my repertaire\u00a0a little and explore other cuisines beside my comfort zone of Indian and Thai.\u00a0\u00a0I had also\u00a0promised myself that I would\u00a0create something\u00a0from a different cookbook at least once a week from now on because I have a huge collection\u00a0that I hardly utilise, so the most logical place for inspiration was my bookshelf.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was the wonderful chef, Karen Martini, who inspired\u00a0our delicious meal.\u00a0 Karen is a\u00a0Chef, restaurateur, writer and now TV presenter,\u00a0whose food is unmistakably that of the Mediterranean, but is also undeniably individual.\u00a0 I particularly love her passion, authenticity and relaxed attitude when presenting new recipes.\u00a0 She describes this recipe as “Comfort food at its best”, and she is very, very correct.<\/p>\n

sp<\/span>aghettini and meatballs (from \u201cCooking at home\u201d by Karen Martini)\u00a0
\nserves 8-10<\/span><\/p>\n

Ingredients<\/span>
\n800g (1lb 12ozs), spaghettini
\n1\/2 cup frozen peas
\ngrated parmesan, to serve
\nMeatballs
\n<\/em>2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for frying
\n2 brown onions, chopped
\n6 cloves garlic, finely sliced
\n1 handful chopped oregano
\nsea salt and freshly ground black pepper
\n450g (1lb)\u00a0pork and veal sausages, skins removed
\n350g (12.3ozs)\u00a0beef mince\u00a0
\n200g (7ozs) grated parmesan
\n2 free-range eggs
\n1 handful chopped oregano
\n1\/2 fresh nutmeg, grated
\nhandful of flat-leaf parsley, chopped
\nTomato Sauce
\n<\/em>100ml (1\/3 cup) olive oil *
\n2 cloves garlic, finely sliced\u00a0
\n1 bay leaf
\n1 handful chopped oregano
\n2 x 400g cans (1lb 12ozs)\u00a0chopped tomatoes
\n2\u00a03\/4 cups tomato passata
\n2 tablespoons caster\u00a0(superfine) sugar
\n500ml (2 cups) chicken stock
\n\u00a0
\nPreparation
\n<\/span>To make the tomato sauce,<\/em> heat the olive oil in a very large saucepan over medium heat.\u00a0 Cook the garlic until golden, then add the bay leaf and oregano and cook for 1 minute.\u00a0 Add the tomatoes and passata and simmer for 10 minutes, then stir in the sugar and chicken stock and season to taste.\u00a0 Simmer over low heat for 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

To make the meatballs<\/em>, heat the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat.\u00a0 Add the onion, garlic and oregano and season with salt and pepper.\u00a0 Cook for 3 – 5 minutes or until onion is soft.<\/p>\n

Place the remaining ingredients (except the extra olive oil) in a food processor, add the onion mixture and pulse until well combined.\u00a0 Form the mixture into small balls, about the size of a walnut.<\/p>\n

Heat the extra oil in a large frying pan over medium heat.\u00a0 Brown the meatballs in batches, then add to the tomato sauce and simmer over low heat for 15 – 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, cook the spaghettini in a very large saucepan of lightly salted water until al dente.\u00a0 Drain.\u00a0 Stir the pasta and peas through the sauce and serve hot with grated parmesan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

My\u00a0tips\/alterations:<\/span>\u00a0 *We are eating healthy at the moment\u00a0so I used half the amount of oil that was suggested\u00a0for the sauce.\u00a0 *I added the\u00a0frozen peas into the sauce about 5 minutes before it was finished cooking.\u00a0 They were perfect.\u00a0 *You can use normal spaghetti, just cook it for the time applicable.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

ease: 7\/10.<\/strong>\u00a0These may not be the simplest meatballs ever made but\u00a0the effort is worth it.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0
\nprep time:<\/strong> 15mins
\ncooking time: 60mins.<\/strong>\u00a0 There are multiple elements cooking at the same time.
\ntotal: 1 hour 15 minutes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

taste: 9\/10.<\/strong>\u00a0 G loved this meal partially because, in his words, “we never have food like this”.\u00a0 He also enjoyed the flavour of the meatballs and the sauce, however, he would have liked the meatballs to be a little crisper.\u00a0 I loved everything about it.\u00a0 The sauce had reduced so that it just coated the pasta with its richness and allowed the succulent meatballs to shine through.\u00a0 The meatballs themselves were tender little flavour bombs that released their layers of delicious ingredients as you ate them.\u00a0\u00a0I would go as far to say that this was the best spaghettini and meatballs that I have ever had.<\/p>\n

would I make it again:\u00a0Absolutely <\/strong>\u2013 I’d make the meatball mixture\u00a0ahead of time then\u00a0cook them when needed.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Throughout my childhood and many of my teenage years I was a competitive swimmer. This meant that I consumed large quantities of complex carbohydrates to fuel my body for the long training hours. One of the most frequent things that I used to eat was pasta. I think that was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[86,79,50,37],"tags":[14,12,122,109],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1374"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1374"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1536,"href":"https:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1374\/revisions\/1536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}