This is an easy recipe for a favourite in our house. I used to think making meatballs was a big deal, but it’s a lot easier and quicker than you’d think! I prefer making this to bolognese now because I don’t have to stand over the stove for ages, softening onions and browning mince.
I preheat the oven while I’m mixing and rolling a baking tray full of meatballs, then put the meatballs in the oven while I sling my sauce ingredients into a pan to heat through and boil the kettle. I put the spaghetti on to boil, then get the meatballs out of the oven and mix them with the sauce to simmer together while the pasta cooks. Simple when you get into a rhythm!
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
Meatballs:
500g beef mince
1 thick slice of bread, grated or whizzed into crumbs in a food processor
1 egg
1-2 tsp oregano
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce or tomato ketchup
1 tbsp Dijon mustard or a handful of grated Parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper
Sauce:
2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes or a 700g jar of passata
250ml/1 cup of water (use this to swill out your tins/jar of tomatoes)
2 tsp oregano
1 heaped tsp sugar
salt and pepper to taste
Optional: 1 tsp chilli flakes
… Plus spaghetti. Allow 75g for each adult portion.
Method
- Preheat your oven to 200°C. Grate or process your bread into crumbs then add the rest of the meatball ingredients and mix and squish really well with your hands.
- Roll into walnut-sized balls, placing them on a lined baking tray as you go. I try to make the meatballs small enough for a child-size mouthful (seems a waste of time to roll loads of meatballs only to have to chop them up at the table!). Bake them in the oven for 10 minutes while you get on with your sauce and pasta.
- Either fill your kettle and switch it on or fill a large pan with water and bring it to the boil. Put all of the sauce ingredients into another pan big enough to hold the sauce and the meatballs later. Bring the sauce to a boil, stir, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Partially cover with a lid if it starts to splatter.
- Add the spaghetti to the boiling water in your pan, stirring occasionally for the first couple of minutes so it doesn’t stick together (check your packet for how long you need to boil it for, usually 8-10 minutes). Take your meatballs out of the oven and stir gently into the sauce to simmer together while the pasta cooks.
- Drain the spaghetti, saving a bit of the cooking water (about 125-250ml/½-1cup) and stir some or all of that into the tomato sauce if it’s a bit thick or too strong. Tip the drained spaghetti back into the pan and stir in half of the sauce. Divide the saucy spaghetti between your bowls, then top with the meatballs and the remaining sauce. Serve with a wedge of parmesan to grate over the top. Yum!
Tips
I’ve used my favourite flavourings for the meatballs, but feel free to leave out any you don’t like and experiment with your own, like garlic, chilli, spices or different herbs.
Depending on the kind of mince you use, some fat and water may come out of the meatballs in the oven. You could drain this before adding the meatballs to the sauce, or bake the meatballs on a cooling rack set onto your baking tray.
My husband works away for 2 weeks out of every 4, so it’s often just me and the kids for dinner. When it’s just the 3 of us, I take out half of the meatballs and sauce and set aside to cool before I drain the spaghetti, then I freeze that half for another day. You could easily make a double batch of the meatballs and sauce and freeze half – only 1 meatball-rolling session for 2 meals! I find it only takes me about 10 minutes to make the meatballs, nothing too onerous.
Thank you for reading! Let me know what you think in the comments.