On Tuesday night, a friend of my husband’s from Melbourne was up here in Brisbane for work and wanted to catch up with us. We hadn’t seen her for about 8 years which just sounded ridiculous. A real, live, adult, grown up person to share food with us. Unbelievable! Not another 6 year old girl or a 4 year old boy (not that we have them over for dinner) but another older person who we could actually have a dinner conversation with. I used to love entertaining and throwing dinner parties, but since the kids, they have been few and far between.
Being a Tuesday night, I really didn’t want to go to a lot of trouble because I would’ve just put myself under too much stress (dealing with the normal evening routine with the kids) so opted for an easy meatball recipe in my famous Bacon & Tomato Sauce (Pancetta e pomodoro sugo). I use this sauce a lot, just to add a nice smoky flavour to the rich tomato sauce. It goes well with Spinach and Ricotta Lasagne or Cannelloni too.
Pasta and Meatballs in Bacon & Tomato Sauce
500gm pasta (I chose rigatoni)
Meatballs:
500gm beef/veal/pork mince (any combination or any one on it’s own)
1 egg
1/2 cup dried breadcrumbs (or more if mixture is too wet)
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried onion flakes
salt & pepper
(you can add grated or pureed vegies at this point to get more vegies into your kids)
Mix all ingredients together. Roll into small balls and place on greased or baking paper lined baking trays and bake in a 180 deg C oven until cooked (approx 20 mins).
Sauce:
2 cans diced Roma Tomatoes
2 onions, diced
2 rashers bacon, chopped
4 cloves garlic, crushed
extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
2 tbs tomato paste
1 tbs dried basil
1 tbs dried oregano
500ml stock
salt & pepper
Fry off onions, bacon and garlic in EVOO. Add tomato paste and stir for 2 mins. Add canned tomatoes and other ingredients. Reduce to a simmer and allow sauce to reduce and thicken (approx 1 hour or more). Add meatballs. Once pasta is cooked, add a couple tablespoons of sauce to pasta. Put into a serving bowl. Pile meatballs and sauce onto pasta and sprinkle with pecorino or parmesan cheese and/or chopped parsley. Serve with garlic bread.
Serves approx 6-8 adults.
