I remember seeing a recipe in a Nigella Lawson cookbook for a ‘Slut’s Spaghetti’ and it sounded so indulgent! This week I had a craving for spaghetti – its not something I eat a lot of as these days, it is all ‘no carb’, ‘low fat’, ‘low carb’ times meals that you see as easy healthy meals. Despite this, nothing beats a good spaghetti I say.
My week was busy as normal, but thoughts about a delicious spaghetti meatball meal post yoga on Friday night kept me going.
When I went to my shop to get my weeks worth of fruit and veg, I noticed red jalapenos and immediately grabbed a bag and started piling them in. They looked so plump and shiny and I couldn’t wait to add them to this dish.
The combination of fennel compliments the pork in a way that no other spice does. If you can’t find red jalapenos, don’t stress, I would use red chilli instead. If you are not a spicy person, leave out altogether, but you can never eat from my kitchen as I like it hot!
This meal is not complicated or too challenging. The meatballs have a lot more flavor than store manufactured and bought ones. If you make more than you need, I would recommend cooking them and freezing for an easy week night dinner also -comfort food at its finest!!!
Image one: Get ready to process!
Pork and veal meatball spaghetti
Serves 2 Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Ingredients
500 grams combined pork and veal mince
1 x large red onion
3 cloves garlic
4 fresh red jalapenos
1 large carrot
½ tablespoon fennel seeds
1 x large bottle passata
Himalayan rock salt (to season)
Parmesan cheese (to serve)
Cracked pepper (to serve)
Pork and Veal Meatball Method
- Add the red onion, garlic cloves and carrot to the food processor. Blitz so that these ingredients are diced and mixed together well.
- Put the minced pork and veal into a mixing bowl
- Season with freshly ground salt and pepper
- Add the ingredients from the food processor.
- Mix all of the ingredients together so that they thoroughly combined.
- Take a soup spoon and start to roll the mix into small meatballs.
- Once you have rolled all of the ingredients into the meatballs, put a splash of olive oil into a large frypan (use one that has a lid)
- Add the meatballs one at a time with enough room for them to move around (do 2 separate batches if you have to, depending on frypan size).
- Turn the meatballs over in the frypan once the meat has turned a grey colour and it has been approximately 4 minutes.
- Cook the meatballs for another 4 minutes on the other side.
- Take out of the pan and rest on paper towel.
- Rinse the frypan and return to the stove top with a splash of olive oil.
- Add the passata and the oregano, let simmer for 3 minutes.
- Return the meatballs to the pan and put the lid on the frypan, simmer for 3 minutes, take the lid off, turn each meatball and put the lid back on.
Pasta Method
- Bring a medium size water filled saucepan to the boil. Add a pinch of Himalayan pink salt and freshly ground pepper to the water. Add a teaspoon olive oil.
- Add enough pasta to serve 2 people.
- Cook according to the packet or when tested the pasta is fully cooked with no hard, dried, or stuck together bits.(Use zucchini noodles for a no pasta alternative)
Serving the dish
- Drain the pasta in a colander and leave sit for 2 minutes.
- Divide the pasta into 2 round dinner bowls
- Use a large serving spoon to scoop the meatballs and sauce into the bowls to cover the pasta.
- Top with cracked pepper and grated parmesan cheese.
