Spaghetti and Meatballs

For a quick and easy meal you can't go past spaghetti and meatballs.  Firstly you must buy some gourmet sausages, thin spaghetti and a bottle of pasata.  Do not, I repeat, do not buy thin cheap pork sausages made out of pigs bits and bread meal.  You need delicious flavoursome sausages that you can actually see the meat in them.  I used lamb, mint and rosemary sausages from our lovely butcher down the road.  They make a most beautiful range of gourmet sausages, my favourites are chicken and sweet corn and pork, leek and roasted garlic, which I often use for my spagetti and meatballs.  These sausages have a flavour all on their own and only need a little back up....the passata, a cooked tomato concentrate.

Spaghetti and Meatballs

7-8 gourmet sausages your flavour of choice

1 700g jar passata

thin spaghetti noodles

extra virgin olive oil

grated parmesan

side salad of your choice

balsamic vinegar

Slice down one side of your sausages with sharp knife and peel off the sausage skin.  Heat pan and add a dash of extra virgin olive oil.  You won't need too much oil as the sausages will have their own fat to add to the pan.

When pan is hot break off chunks of sausage and drop into the pan.  Let the sausage brown a little then shake the pan up a bit to brown the other side of the meatballs.  You want them cooked through but not burnt and sticking to the pan.  You may need to drain a little of the fat out of the pan, but leave some as that has flavour in it.  While these are cooking boil a large pot of salted water for your spaghetti.  

Pour in the whole jar of passata with the meatballs.

Mix it up a little and let bubble and simmer while your spagetti cooks

When your spaghetti is cooked, drain serve it up on a plate topped with the meatballs and sauce.  Finish it up with a little salad dressed with balsamic vinegar and sprinkle a little fresh grated parmesan over the meatballs.

Your kids will thank you and say "this is a great dinner mummy"......"I love this dinner mummy"......and then this will happen...

.....there will be none left and they will be singing "On top of spaghetti all covered with cheese, I lost my poor meatball when somebody sneezed......".

Full lyrics go here.