Spaghetti, pork meatballs in a tomato and pepper sauce

Another mid-week favourite in my household, this takes around 30 minutes to cook. I use shop-bought pork meatballs to save time and effort - Ocado and Tesco both do good versions for this recipe.

Ingredients

420g pork meatballs
3 x large tomatoes, chopped
Small sweet red pepper, chopped
Squirt of tomato ketchup or concentrated tomato puree
Medium sized onion, chopped
Heaped teaspoon of dried rosemary
Half a cup plain flour

Dry spaghetti - approx 70g per person.

Method

• Roll the meatballs in flour and fry them in a tablespoon of sunflower oil, to seal their surface and partially cook them through.
• Remove from the frying pan and tip in the chopped onion and tomatoes. Cook for five minutes, adding up to half a cup of water to 'let down' the sauce if it looks as if it is too thick.
• Add the red pepper and the meatballs back into the pan with the sauce, season with salt, pepper and dried rosemary and cook on a low heat for 15 minutes.
• While the pan contents are simmering, cook the spaghetti according to the packet instructions.
• Drain the pasta, divide among three bowls, serve the meatballs and sauce on top.

Moroccan lamb meatball tagine

Serve this delicious dish with couscous for an authentic Moroccan vibe. The original version of this meal came to me with an egg cooked on top, but that’s a bit much, I think. 

As this is a mid-week recipe, I use shop-bought lamb meatballs – it certainly saves both time and effort. If you are not a fan of lamb, then beef meatballs work just as well. 

I would also only use a tagine to serve at the table, maybe at the weekend! Cooking in a tagine would take additional time and adds to the washing up.

Serves four, with a prep/cooking time of 35-40 minutes. 

Ingredients

One onion, chopped

600g lamb meatballs

400g tin chopped tomatoes

One garlic clove, crushed (or a pre-squished substitute such as Very Lazy Garlic)

Ground cumin

Ground cinnamon

Paprika

Dried crushed chillies

Coriander leaf (Cilantro)

Couscous:

1 x 110g packet of lemon flavoured couscous (both Tesco (lemon & coriander) and Waitrose (lemon & garlic) do a good version).

55g plain couscous

330ml boiling water

Method

Start with the couscous

• Boil the kettle and tip the packet couscous, along with the additional plain couscous into a small pan. 
• Add 300ml of boiling water, heat the pan on a low heat just until the couscous starts to bubble. Remove from the heat, cover and leave on one side. 
• Ignore any packet instructions to add butter to the couscous. All it does is add calories!

Next, the meatballs and sauce

• Heat about one tablespoon of olive or sunflower oil in a large frying pan. On a medium heat, tip in the meatballs and moving them regularly, seal their surfaces. There’s no need to cook them through.

• Take the meatballs out of the pan and put to one side.

• Now add the onion to the pan, cooking until the pieces start to soften, scraping the meatball scraps and any juices into them.

• Add in a tablespoon of each of the herbs and spices apart from the crushed chillies. Add the garlic (optional).

• Pour in the tinned chopped tomatoes and stir.

• Add a teaspoon of dried chillies, bring to the boil.

• As soon as the tomatoes start to bubble, return the meatballs the pan, cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes on a low heat until you are sure the meat is cooked.

• Add salt and black pepper to pep up the seasoning, maybe some more coriander leaf, then serve either to the table in a tagine with couscous on the side, or directly on to plates, on a portion of couscous.