Pasta and meatballs in a creamy tomato sauce
Posted: 02 October '09 by Niall
Pasta with meatballs in a creamy tomato sauce
Another mid-week favourite of ours, and another pasta dish – but the spaghetti with pork meatballs is more of a winter-warmer compared to the pasta and prawns.
You can see more photos hereImage 1Image 2Image 3Image 4
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 500g dried spaghetti (i.e. one packet)
- 500g of pomodorino tomatoes
- 150ml of double cream
- 6 tbsp olive oil
- 3 fat garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 medium-hot red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
- A good handful of fresh basil, roughly chopped (again, don’t use the dried stuff!)
- 1/2lb of butchers sausages
- Parmesan to grate over the dish (entirely optional)
Method
- Using a pair off scissors (it’s far easier than a knife) split and remove the sausage casings, so you’re left with the sausage-meat ina bowl
- Add a couple of pinches of ground black pepper
- Using your hands, mix the pepper through the meat thoroughly
- Take a small portion of the sausage-meat, enough to make a meatball that will be about the size of gobstopper – and roll the meat between your palms to make a meatball. Don’t worry if it’s messy and the meatballs are a bit “rough” looking – we’ll fix that in the next step
- Wash your hands and rinse them again to keep them slightly damp – and re-roll all of the meatballs to make firmer, more rounded balls
- Place the frying pan on a low heat and add two tablespoons of olive oil, frying the meatballs in batches of 6 or so until they are golden or slightly browned on both sides
- As they finish cooking, place the browned meatballs in a separate bowl – and remove the frying pan from the heat
- Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Add the spaghetti and cook according to the packet instructions, until al dente
- Meanwhile, roughly chop the tomatoes into quarters
- Heat the oil in a pan over a low heat
- Add the garlic and red chillies and sweat gently until the garlic has become slightly translucent
- Add the tomatoes and increase the heat slightly, cooking gently – with the seeds included, the contents of the pan will look a little water-y. We’re going to leave the pan over the heat until the tomatoes have fully broken down and the liquid has reduced to form a thick, concentrated tomato “jam”
- Season to taste with salt and pepper
- Lower the heat under the tomatoes completely, add the chopped basil and then the cream, mixing both through the sauce
- Re-introduce the meatballs and make sure that they are well-coated in the sauce
- Drain the spaghetti well, return to the saucepan, and add the tomato mixture
- Toss together until the sauce is thoroughly mixed through the pasta, and serve
Wine Selection
A bit of a heartier, richer dish this time.. Something like a young Chianti will stand up to the cream and concentrated tomato flavours.
Other Information
- Use the best sausages you can get – none of the processed stuff though – anything made by your butcher is fine
- You could also substitute sage for the basil – but be careful how much you use – it’s a very strong herb, and needs to be used sparingly
- It’s important not to add too many meatballs into the pan when browning them – they hold a bit of fat, and too much liquid will make the meatballs stew rather than fry
Tags: italian food, pasta, Recipes
Categories: Featured Post > Italian Food > Main Course > Pasta > Pork > Recipes > Uncategorized
