There’s no better way to someone’s heart than through their stomach. This is the perfect meal to prepare in advance so you can spend ample time with your valentine. Pre-make the tomato sauce and roll the meatballs one day ahead. When it comes to serving simply reheat the sauce, cook the meatballs and pasta. Dinner is served, buon appetito.
Ingredients
Meatballs
- 500g beef mince
- ⅓ cup breadcrumbs
- ½ onion, finely chopped
- 1 egg (lightly beaten)
- 2 Tbsp fresh herbs (we used rosemary, oregano and thyme)
- Salt and pepper
- Olive oil (for cooking the meatballs)
Sauce
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 400g tin cherry tomatoes
- 3 Tbsp tomato paste
- 4 cloves of garlic (crushed)
- 1 cup of red wine or stock or a mixture of both
- 2 Tbsp fresh herbs (we used rosemary, oregano and thyme)
- 2 tsp coconut or brown sugar
To serve
- 200g fresh egg spaghetti
- ½ cup of basil leaves
- Parmesan cheese
Method
- Start off by getting the sauce started as you want all of the flavours to develop and the sauce to reduce and get beautifully rich.
- Heat a large pan or sautee dish over medium heat and add a generous glug of olive oil, crushed garlic and fresh herbs. Cook for a couple of minutes until fragrant but make sure that the garlic doesn’t burn.
- Add the tinned cherry tomatoes, tomato paste, red wine or stock, sugar, salt and pepper. Let this mixture come to a gentle boil before turning down to low and allow to simmer and reduce while you get everything else prepared.
- In a medium-size mixing bowl combine the mince, breadcrumbs, onion, herbs, salt and pepper. Mix well (we find it best to do this with our hands), add the lightly beaten egg and continue to mix.
- Once the mixture has combined roll into meatballs around a golf ball size.
- Once you’ve rolled all of the meatballs heat a generous amount of olive oil in a large pan. Cook the meatballs for 2-3 minutes on each side until they are golden brown.
- Add the meatballs to the sauce and allow it to simmer for 5 minutes or so until cooked through.
- While the meatballs are simmering away in the sauce, cook the spaghetti as per packet instructions.
- Once the pasta is cooked you can plate up. We like tossing the spaghetti through the tomato sauce and topping it with the meatballs, lots of freshly grated parmesan cheese and some fresh basil.
Tips
- You only need to cook the meatballs for a couple of minutes on either side until they are golden brown on the outside as they will keep cooking when they are in the tomato sauce.
- For ease, you can pop the meatballs into the oven and cook for 8–10 minutes at 220 degrees celsius.
Variations
- You can use a mixture of pork mince and beef mince if you’d prefer.
- If you don’t have fresh herbs you can use mixed dried herbs or dried oregano.
