Meatball Spaghetti
My super easy, super quick meatball spaghetti. Serves 4.
Ingredients
- 500 gr minced meat
- 1 onion
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 zucchini
- 1 bell pepper
- 50 gr breadcrumbs
- 1 egg (optional)
- 1 1/2 tsp coriander
- 1 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1 tsp cardamom
- 1 tsp Tabasco sauce
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 400 gr tomato sauce with Italian herbs
- Olive oil
- Spaghetti
Minced meat can be anything you have at hand. I use half pork half beef because it’s richer in flavor, but you can also use only beef. If you choose to use only beef, add an egg to prevent the balls from falling apart. I used store bought tomato sauce, because it makes this recipe so much faster, but you could also choose to use tomato passata and add seasoning to taste.
Get started with the minced meat (I prefer to do this by hand and use disposable gloves, but a kitchen-processor will work just fine) and season it with the coriander, cardamom, nutmeg, worchestershire, tabasco, pepper and salt. Adjust to taste. Add in the breadcrumbs until the meat feels nice and firm, but does not crumble. If the meatball starts falling apart, bind it with an egg.
Next. start making tiny meatballs! This is why I prefer to use gloves, no scraping the sticky meat from under my fingernails, yuk! Set these aside.
Chop the onion and garlic and set aside. Add olive oil to a stockpot and place it on medium heat. Bake the onions and garlic until they are somewhat glassy and return to low heat.
Meanwhile you can start to boil water for the spaghetti.
Time to chop the zucchini and bell pepper, no need to be exact as these will first be grilled and then chopped into dice. Make sure to cut them in to pieces that are large enough to grill but not too large to handle.
Grill time! I use my fancy grill pan to give them the nice charred stripes, but a regular pan will work just fine. Or if you feel like setting up the grill, I’m not stopping you.
The peppers can also be charred by using tongs and a crème brûlée burner, at your own risk. If you prefer this method it’s wise to chop the pepper AFTER charring, so you can use the stem to hold it.
Now would be about the time to add the spaghetti to the boiling water and boil as indicated.
Reheat the olive oil to medium heat and cook the meatballs until they are nice and brown.
Chop the veggies into dice and add them to the pot, stir until everything is nicely combined.
Mmmmm…
Now add the tomato sauce, drain the pasta and add this to the pot too. Now combine the whole thing and serve.
