Thursday, November 20, 2008

Pappardelle with Meatballs and Tomato Sauce

Now that my boys are more game for tomato sauce and Marcus is even enjoying dipping his meat into a little ketchup, I made the beef meatballs again last Monday for dinner, but this time with grated apple. 

The meatballs were served with homemade tomato sauce and pappardelle. It was awesome!



I even sprinkled dried basil generously (forgot to buy fresh basil!) and the dish turned out to be such a hit!



Even little Chipsy, who normally rejects anything with a hint of tomato or herbs, finished everything in his bowl. 

Marcus who is nursing an ulcer on his lip (caused by a classmate who punched his mouth while they were rough playing in class) suffered a little from the tomato sauce but he endured it because he wanted to eat his delicious dinner. Definitely a thumbs up from my young critics. 

E was away on business trip, so I ate his share. Hah!

Ingredients for meatballs: 
220g minced beef
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 organic red apple, grated 
sea salt and pepper (optional)
plain flour for dusting and coating 
oil for frying

Preparation: 
1. Mix first 4 ingredients together and form into small balls with hands. I like to make smaller meatballs since they cook quickly and easier for small kids to handle. I didn't add salt and pepper in this case as I served the meatballs with my tomato sauce which was already salted. 
2. Roll meatballs onto plain flour to coat thinly 
3. Drop them into oil for shallow frying for a few minutes and drain onto kitchen paper if serving on its own. 

As I made these meatballs to be served with pappardelle and tomato sauce, I cooked the tomato sauce first and while it was simmering, I started preparing the meatballs. 

When the meatballs were cooked and drained, I dropped them into my pan of simmering tomato sauce which was also ready and let them sit in the sauce for another few minutes while I get the pasta done. 

Then it was a quick assembling job of meatballs and sauce onto piping hot pasta, topped with a sprinkle of dried (or fresh) basil and generous helping of grated cheddar. 

Viola! :)


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi,
i juz had my dinner but i m still drooling over ur dish.

tat was very rough play. hope marcus recovers fast.

Ivana said...

Oh yummy! I love meatballs... the best I've had were in Spain but have never ever been able to recreate them. So I'm sticking to the IKEA ones!

DG said...

Hi Kelly, it was one-sided rough play by the other classmate who is a big fan of Transformer and all fighting shows and cartoons. After suffering for a week, Marcus' lip has finally recovered. In a way, it is a good lesson for him, so now he knows how rough this friend can be and will not play like this with him anymore.

Ivana, I am usually not a big fan of meatballs when we are out dining but my hubby is, which is one of my motivation for recreating them at home. Never tried the Ikea ones, though I have seen the frozen bags in the Ikea store. Meatballs are real easy to make at home though. I always wish i make enough to freeze.

Anonymous said...

pls share ur meatball recipe. thks!

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...