On top of spaghetti, all covered with cheese...

I have been craving meatballs lately and motivated to cook on Tuesday, I set about cooking a batch. Initially, I thought it would be a time-intensive meal, but actually the result was surprisingly quick, my recipe (or improv!) made loads, and the result was quite tasty.

Essentially I threw together about 60og of beef and veal mince, along with a handful of fresh parsley and basil, a raw egg, a handful of breadcrumbs, 2 crushed garlic cloves, an onion, some romano cheese as well as salt and pepper. Then, I mixed it all together until it was well combined (I started by using a spoon, but this proved far more difficult and plus, I love playing with food).

My mid-week cheat for the sauce was Napoletana (700mls) from the supermarket. I started heating it through while I rolled tablespoons of the mince mixture. Once the meatballs were ready and the sauce was nice and hot, I added them straight to the hot sauce. While they were cooking (about 30 mins... I think), I cooked spaghetti and prepared a garden salad.

The end result?

Meal One: Spaghetti and Meatballs

As I've said, my recipe made quite a few serves. There was enough for seconds for The B and I, as well as leftovers for lunch the next day.

Actually, there was also enough for another dinner, but I figured a bit of sprucing was required. So the next day, I heated the meatballs, added risoni and some V8. The addition of the vegetable juice might sound a tad strange but I needed more liquid (for the pasta to cook properly) but I also didn't want to thin the flavour of the tomatoes, which had gotten better overnight. V8 is just tomato juice after all and a much better alternative to water in this case. Once the pasta cooked through, in went in 1/3 of Boursin (garlic and herb), which made the sauce creamy and a bit thicker. Mmmmm.

I fished out the meatballs, and served them along with a salad of mixed leaves, tomato and avocado dressed with white balsamic, olive oil and a dash of soy.

Meal 2: Meatballs and Risoni in Creamy Tomato Sauce

There was still some sauce remaining after the meatballs were well gone - enough for yet another lunch. But this time, for something completely different, I sliced up smoked chicken breast to have along with the sauce. I didn't mix it through the tomato, so as not to add too much smokey flavour to the pasta sauce.

At work, I heated the sauce and risoni, added the chicken on top. Was really good.

Meal 3: Risoni, Tomato with Smoked Chicken