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.