Pasta with meatballs and tomato sauce
Let me explain why I put “quick” tag to a recipe containing meatballs. Of course it won’t be fast if you start with making minced meat. But you can make some kilos of minced meat in advance: shape patties, meatballs (whatever you’ll need) and freeze it. Or you can buy minced meat or precooked meatballs.
Precooked meatballs or defrosted precooked patties (diced) should be added at step 4. To defrost raw minced meat (patties etc) put it in microwave oven, 180 W, for 2 min. flip over, and defrost for another 2 min. Then it would be possible to (re)shape it to meatballs.
Ingredients #1 (meatballs):
- 200 g of pork or beef or mixed
- 20 g of minced onion
- 0,5 tsp of salt
- 2 pinches of black pepper
- Optional, for soft meatballs – some breadcrumbs or a piece of stale wheat bread soaked in some milk
Ingredients #2:
- 150 g of any pasta
- 150 g of crushed tomatoes – you can replace it with 100 g of tomato paste + 50 ml of water and reduce amount of salt (-0,25 tsp). Good tomato paste should contain only tomatoes/paste, salt, water and there may be sugar. No starch! If you have some tasty lecso (vegetable stew made of tomatoes and bell peppers) – you can also use it instead of crushed tomatoes.
- 330 ml of water
- 0,5 tsp of salt
- 1 tsp of minced dried basil leaves
- 1 minced clove of garlic or 0,5 tsp of dried garlic powder
- A pinch of grounded black pepper
Ingredients #3:
- 75-100 g of sliced cheese (edam or gouda type) or 50 g of grated parmesan (you may add both)
Instructions
1. Mince ingredients #1 and shape meatballs of the size you wish.
2. Fry meatballs at high heat until golden brown.
3. Add list #2, mix, cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to minimum, cooking time – see the package of pasta +2 min.
4. If you use gouda-type cheese – add it to pasta, mix, cover and wait until it melts down. Switch off the stove and mix pasta one more time. If you use parmesan – sprinkle pasta with it now.
About one pan pasta method read here. More one pot pasta recipes are here.
