Take a classic recipe, such as pasta and meatballs, and spin it on its head. Step away from the rules of tradition, if I may be so bold. Here we are. Firstly, to make awesome homemade meatballs, don't worry about buying mince meat. Grab yourself some nice pork sausages, and take the meat out of the skins. Simple! (I used a combination of 3 pork and 3 vegetarian sausages, for a coarser texture.) Place your meat in to a bowl, and add any herbs, spices you wish. (I used chili flakes, parsley and thyme.) Break your mix down with a fork and crack in one egg, this will help it to bind. Then, using your hands, shape it into large meatballs. My mixture made about eight. Place these beauties into an oven proof dish. Bake in the oven for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, prep the veg for your tomato sauce! I kept it simple with red onions and cherry tomatoes. After the 10 minutes is up, scatter the onion and tomatoes over the meatballs. Pour over some passata, and leave in the oven for another 5-10 minutes, until bubbling and your tomatoes are practically exploding! Get whatever pasta you fancy on the go, and when al dente, place in a bowl. Top with your pipping hot, brilliant, meatballs, and sprinkle with whatever cheese you like and even a fancy garnish of basil! A twist of black pepper, and you're there! Enjoy!
Now, in the title of this post it says homemade spaghetti and meatballs, but obviously I should confess, I didn't make the pasta in this dish. :) However, I did make the tomato sauce and the meatballs. I made the meatballs beforehand, as I knew that it's best to leave them to firm up and absorb all the flavourings added. For the meatballs I used: minced beef, salt, pepper, tsp of honey, thyme, a little olive oil, and mixed it together, making 10 meatballs in total. I placed the meatballs in the fridge for later. After some time, I fried off some onions and garlic, placed them in a baking dish. I then fried off the meatballs in the same pan, and once golden added them to the onion and garlic mixture. I placed these in to a pre-heated oven, whilst I made the tomato sauce. The tomato sauce was made up of fried onions and garlic, tomato puree, a little water, sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and fresh basil. Once the sauce was finished I poured it over the meatballs and let it bubble away in the oven. I then put on my pasta. Once the pasta was almost done I added some grated cheese on the top of the meatballs and sauce, then mixed some of the sauce with the pasta and added it all together with some more fresh basil. Done!
