Meatballs and pasta

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Satisfying and simple beefy and tasty meatballs with some pasta and vegetable sauce added.

This not so complicated recipe is tasty and easy to cook for a great dinner. I always thought cooking meatballs was complicated until I made them one time and now well, I cook them way more often.

Start off by making the meatballs. Put the ground beef in a bowl and then add in all the other ingredients for the meatballs. Meaning, egg, mustard, bread crumbs, rosemary and chopped onion. Dig in with your hand and mix it all up. You’ll feel the mixture starting to get a little hard as the bread absorbs any liquids.

From there divide the mixture in half and then in half again. That way you’ve got four about the same size balls. Finally divide up each one into four balls about the size of a golf ball. I really like bigger meatballs, so I always make mine a little bigger. We’ve had many a philosophical discussion about meatball size and there is something to be said for many small ones versus just a few big ones.

I say go big.

When they are all ready put them on a plate, sprinkle some olive oil on them and place them in the refrigerator. This will make them firm up a bit and keep them cool until you are ready to cook them up.

Now it’s time to get the sauce ready. Start by chopping up the onion, garlic, tomato and also the basil. For the basil make sure to pick the leaves and remove the stem. The stem can add a bitter flavor.

Heat up a few table spoons of olive oil to medium heat in a pan then add in the onion. Let it cook for one minute then reduce the heat a bit and add in the garlic. Let them cook for another 4-5 minutes. Be careful not to burn the garlic.

From there add in the tomatoes basil and balsamic vinegar, heat it up to a boil then reduce to a low simmer. The tomatoes have sugar and you want them cook, but with a high temperature they will burn. So keep an eye on the temperature of the pan.

With the sauce simmering use a second pan and get cooking the meatballs. Add a tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and on medium heat cook the meatballs for 8 – 10 minutes. Move them around so all sides get cooked. Open one and make sure there is no pink inside.

When they are cooked add them to the sauce and let them simmer as you cook the pasta. Cook the pasta in salted water according to package. I prefer whole grain pasta, don’t know if it’s better for you as it’s pretty processed but hey it’s something. When it’s done save a cup of the water and add it to the simmering sauce to get a bit more liquid in the sauce. The starch from the pasta water will thicken the sauce as it boils down.

When the pasta is drained add it back to the pot and cover with 1/2 of the pasta sauce. Stir it around to get it coated. From there plate the pasta and cover with the remaining sauce and meatballs. To top it off finely grate some parmesan cheese and serve.

Below is the recipe and instructions. Let me know if you make this and how it went. Thanks, Delicious Eric.

Meatballs with pasta

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• Author: Delicious Eric
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 15 minutes
• Total Time: 30 minutes
• Yield: 4 servings
• Category: Dinner
• Method: Cooktop
• Cuisine: Italian

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Description

Satisfying and simple beefy and tasty meatballs with some pasta and vegetable sauce added.

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Ingredients

Meatballs

• 1 pound (400 grams) ground beef
• 2 table spoons onion diced
• 2 table spoons dijon mustard
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 1 tea spoon rosemary

PASTA AND SAUCE

• 2 tomatoes chopped
• 1/2 onion chopped kind of big
• 2 cloves garlic diced
• 5 – 6 leaves fresh basil
• 2 table spoons balsamic vinegar
• Pasta of your choice

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Instructions

easy meatballs

1. Place all the ingredients in a big bowl and hand mix it all together
2. Form meatballs, makes about 16 of them
3. Drizzle meatballs with olive oil and chill in fridge for about 10 – 15 minutes to let them firm up
4. Place 2 table spoons olive oil in pan and cook meat balls for 8 – 10 minutes. Moving them around a bit.
5. Add meatballs to sauce and simmer as you cook the pasta.

PASTA AND SAUCE

1. Chop all the vegetables. Make the tomatoes a little bigger so you can have some texture.
2. Cook onions in pan with olive oil for one minute then add-in the garlic. Continue cooking for 4 – 5 minutes on medium – low heat.
3. Add the tomatoes, basil and balsamic vinegar, turn up the heat until it begins to boil. Then reduce heat and let simmer.
4. In a separate pot cook pasta in salted water until done.
5. When draining pasta save some of the water and add to the sauce.
6. Return pasta to pot and add in 1/2 of the sauce. Mix it up well.
7. Serve pasta on plates and add on top the meatballs and remaining sauce.
8. Grate some parmesan cheese on top to be fancy and tasty.

Notes

To amaze your dinner guests, “spaghetti” is plural. One piece of spaghetti is a “spaghetto.”

Keywords: meatballs, pasta, pasta sauce, beef, spaghetti, tomatoes, basil