Pasta With Meatballs Recipes

PASTA WITH MEATBALLS

Steps:

• Prepare meatballs: In a large bowl, combine pork, beef, egg, Parmesan, garlic, oregano, bread crumbs, salt and pepper to taste. Mix thoroughly but lightly, handling mixture as little as possible.
• Line a baking sheet with plastic wrap. Shape rounded teaspoonfuls of meat mixture into balls 1 inch in diameter, and place on plastic. Refrigerate while making sauce.
• Prepare sauce: Combine onion, garlic and oregano in a food processor, and puree until smooth. Combine butter and oil in a wide, deep pan, and place over low heat until butter melts. Add onion-garlic mixture. Simmer, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes; do not brown. Add passata and 2 cups water to pan. Season with sugar, and salt and pepper to taste.
• Simmer for 10 minutes, then add milk and bring sauce back to a simmer. Gently drop in meatballs one by one so that they do not break (make sure the meatballs are submerged); do not stir pan. Cover pan partially with a lid, and simmer for 20 minutes.
• Adjust seasonings to taste. Place hot pasta in a large serving bowl. Pour most of sauce (reserving meatballs) on pasta, and toss to combine. Top pasta with meatballs, and serve.

SPAGHETTI AND MEATBALLS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
• Place a large pot of water on to boil for spaghetti. When it boils, add salt and pasta and cook to al dente.
• Mix beef and Worcestershire, egg, bread crumbs, cheese, garlic, salt and pepper. Roll meat into 1 1/2 inch medium-sized meatballs and place on nonstick cookie sheet or a cookie sheet greased with extra-virgin olive oil. Bake balls 10 to 12 minutes, until no longer pink.
• Heat a deep skillet or medium pot over moderate heat. Add oil, crushed pepper, garlic and finely chopped onion. Saute 5 to 7 minutes, until onion bits are soft. Add beef stock, crushed tomatoes, and herbs. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes.
• Toss hot, drained pasta with a few ladles of the sauce and grated cheese. Turn meatballs in remaining sauce. Place pasta on dinner plates and top with meatballs and sauce and extra grated cheese. Serve with bread or garlic bread (and some good chianti!)

PASTA WITH MEATBALLS

Steps:

• Method
• 1. To make the meatballs, just put everything in a large bowl, and then, using your hands, mix to combine, before shaping into small balls.
• 2. Place the meatballs on baking sheets or plates that you have lined with clingfilm, and put in the fridge as you finish them.
• 3. To make the tomato sauce, put the onion, garlic and oregano into the process and blitz to a pulp.
• 4. Heat the butter and oil in a deep wide pan, then scrape the onion-garlic mix into it and cook over a low-medium for about 10 minutes. Don't let the mixture catch, just let it become soft.
• 5. Add the bottle of passata and then fill the empty bottle half full with cold water. Add this to the pan with the pinch of sugar, some salt and pepper, and cook for about 10 minutes. The tomato sauce will appear thin at this stage, but don't worry as it will thicken a little later.
• 6. Stir in the milk, and then drop the meatballs in one by one. Don't stir the pan until the meatballs have turned from pink to brown as you don't want to break them up.
• 7. Cook everything for about 20 minutes, with the lid only partially covering it. At the end of cooking time, check the seasoning as you may want more salt and a grind or two more of pepper.
• 8. To make the pasta, either put the flour (with the salt) in a bowl and crack the eggs into it, or make a mound of flour on a worktop and add the eggs to that. I don't bother to beat them before adding them to the flour, but if you prefer to, then add them gradually, do. Just find the way that you prefer.
• 9. All you do is mix the flour and eggs together, and then knead the mixture until it all comes together in a satiny mass. Kneading involves no more than pushing the mixture away from you with the heels of your hands and then bringing it back towards you. If you've got an electric mixer with a dough hook, then do use that, but for some reason I don't find it makes the pasta cohere any sooner. And you don't get the relaxing satisfaction of making it by hand.
• 10. When the pasta is silky and smooth, form into a ball, cover with a cloth and leave for 30 minutes - 1 hour.
• 11. Get out your pasta machine, read the instructions and away you go. Two tips first: cut each slice you want to feed through the pasta machine as you go, and put through the no1 press quite a few times, folding the strip in half and pushing it through again after each time. When the pasta dough's been fed a few times through the no1 slot, pass it through the remaining numbers on the gauge, before pushing it through the tagliatelle-cutters. And I find that the pasta strips cut into tagliatelle better if you leave them hanging over the table or wherever to dry a little first (10 minutes is enough).
• 12. When you cook the pasta, make sure you've got plenty of boiling salted water and start tasting immediately the water comes back to the boil after you've put the pasta inches Use about a third of the meatballs in their sauce to toss the cooked, drained pasta in and then pour the rest of them over the scantly sauced ribbons in the bowl. This is ambrosia: food to get you through the winter happily.
• Cooks note: This is definitely time consuming, but here at least I make no apology for that. And there is nothing like serving up a bowl of pasta with meatballs to make you feel like an Italian mamma out of a Hollywood film. I don't mean one of those redoubtable types in amorphous black: think Sophia Loren in the kitchen. It works for me.
• The trick to these meatballs is to keep them small. Don't actually use a teaspoon, but use about a teaspoonful of mince to roll each ball. If there are children around, so much the better; they tend to like making these. But otherwise, they're easy enough, and the slow repetitiveness of the action can be rather calming.
• To go with these divine meatballs, I like tagliatelle. De Cecco, Spinosi or Cipriani brands are all very good, but making fresh pasta is an experience worth trying. No one's saying you have to make it, but actually once you do try, you'll soon see that it's not difficult. I had a pasta machine for years before I was brave enough to use it. For some reason I thought it would be a performance but I tried and it isn't, and I rather like the mood of peaceful concentration the activity ushers forth. And it's a great way of playing in the kitchen with children: they love turning the handle, which is actually a help, not often the case when the children are cooking with you.
• Quantities are easy so long as you remember you need one egg per 100g of 00 flour (now available at most supermarkets), and that on average, one 'egg ' of pasta, as it were, feeds two generously.

MEATBALL PASTA BAKE

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add ziti and cook, stirring occasionally, about 3 minutes less than the package instructions, about 8 minutes. Drain pasta.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 13x9 inch baking dish.
• Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat and cook meatballs until browned on all sides, about 5 minutes. Add marinara sauce and ricotta cheese; mix to combine. Add cooked pasta and mix to combine. Season with Italian seasoning and garlic powder.
• Cover the bottom of the prepared baking dish with a layer of sauce without meatballs. Sprinkle 1 cup mozzarella cheese on top. Add another layer of sauce with meatballs on top and sprinkle with 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese. Add another layer of 1 cup mozzarella cheese. Add the rest of the sauce and meatball mixture on top, followed by remaining 1 cup mozzarella cheese and 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese. Cover baking dish with aluminum foil.
• Bake in the preheated oven until cheese is melted, 20 to 30 minutes.
• Remove foil and bake until cheese starts to turn golden brown, 10 to 20 minutes. Enjoy!

PASTA WITH MEATBALLS AND HERB SAUCE

Steps:

• Mix together the basil, parsley and chives. Soak the bread in the milk for 5 minutes, then gently squeeze any excess milk from the bread; discard the milk. Combine the bread with the meat, 1 cup of the herbs and some salt and pepper; shape the mixture into 1-inch meatballs.
• Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Put 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the meatballs in a single layer (work in batches if necessary). Cook, turning occasionally, until brown on all sides, 5 to 10 minutes.
• Cook the pasta in the boiling water until tender but not mushy. While the pasta is cooking, purée 11/2 cups of the herbs with 4 tablespoons oil, the garlic and some salt and pepper in a mini food processor or blender; leave the sauce rough or add a little water if you want it smoother. Drain the pasta, reserving about a cup of its cooking liquid. Toss the pasta with the herb sauce and most of the remaining herbs, adding the reserved liquid if the mixture seems dry. Top with the meatballs, garnish with Parmesan and the last of the herbs and serve.

ITALIAN SPAGHETTI SAUCE WITH MEATBALLS

Steps:

• In a large bowl, combine ground beef, bread crumbs, parsley, Parmesan, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, garlic powder and beaten egg. Mix well and form into 12 balls. Store, covered, in refrigerator until needed.
• In a large saucepan over medium heat, saute onion and garlic in olive oil until onion is translucent. Stir in tomatoes, salt, sugar and bay leaf. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 90 minutes. Stir in tomato paste, basil, 1/2 teaspoon pepper and meatballs and simmer 30 minutes more. Serve.

MEATBALL PASTA BAKE (PASTA AL FORNO)

Steps:

• Mix the grated onion, 1 crushed garlic clove, mince, breadcrumbs, milk, parmesan and parsley in a large bowl. Season well with salt and pepper. Mash the mixture together with your hands until combined. Mould the mix into small balls (about walnut-sized) with damp hands. There will be about 20 meatballs.
• Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a deep frying pan and fry the meatballs for 6-8 mins until golden brown all over. Fry in batches if you need to - they don't need to be cooked through, just browned on the outside. Set aside on a plate.
• Heat the remaining 1 tbsp olive oil in the pan and fry the chopped onion for 5 mins until softened. Add the remaining garlic, fry for another minute, then add the chopped tomatoes and simmer for 10 mins until thickened and the tomatoes have broken down. Season well with salt and pepper.
• Meanwhile, cook the pasta for 5 mins less than the pack instructions state, in boiling salted water. Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6.
• Stir the meatballs into the tomato sauce, adding a splash of water if too thick, and bring to a simmer. Drain the pasta and tip into an ovenproof dish. Pour over the sauce and meatballs and mix well. Stir in most of the mozzarella, then scatter the remaining over the top. Bake for 15-20 mins until the cheese is golden and bubbling, and the top is slightly crisp.