Saturday 8 June 2013

Would Sir care to hear tonight's special?....

Welcome back ladies and gents! Its dinner time and what could be more appetising than a delicious spaghetti and meatballs? 'Just-a like-a mamma yoosta make!' Well maybe not, as we are going to make meatballs with a twist.
Traditionally meatballs are made with minced/ground beef and herbs but as we are on a bit of a budget, we are going to have to find an alternative.

Sausage meat makes a perfect alternative to beef, its cheaper,has herbs already mixed in and the meatballs fry up real nice in a little bit of oil.

If you have a little spare cash, you can mix it up a bit. Add a squeeze of lemon, garlic or cheese to the mixture.

Lets get started...


Sausage Meatballs in Homemade Tomato Sauce

Serves 5 - 6 people

preparation time 30 mins
cooking time 30 mins


Ingredients

Meatballs
Pork sausages x 8

Sauce
2 tbsp Olive oil
4 Garlic cloves, crushed
2 Medium onions chopped
4 x 400g cans Chopped tomato
2 x Bell Peppers cut into small strips
125ml red wine or dry cider (optional)
A splash of Worcestershire sauce
3 tbsp caster or granulated sugar (optional)
½ a large bunch flat-leaf Parsley, finely chopped or a tsp of mixed herbs
A few basil leaves (optional)


Serve with 40g Spaghetti per person, and grated cheddar cheese (optional).

First preheat the oven to 160 C.


  1. Heat a large frying pan (make sure it has high sides) on a medium heat and add a tbsp of olive oil. Snip the sausages apart, then squeeze and pinch the meat out of the skins so that you get little meatball shapes – don't make them too big or they will take too long to cook. Try to get at least three balls out of each sausage. Don't worry about rolling them into perfect balls, the rustic look is pretty cool! 
meaty balls
2. Put the Meatballs into the frying pan and cook until they're golden brown, turning them regularly. Once browned pop them in to a roasting tin and let them cook through in the oven. That will keep them warm while you make the sauce.

The tomato sauce
3. Using the same frying pan add another glug of oil. On a lowish heat fry the garlic and sizzle for 1 minute, add the onions and cook for a further 5 mins.

4. Add the wine/cider and cook for a minute (if using), then add the tomatoes, sugar, mixed herbs and Worcestershire sauce. 

5. Simmer for 10 mins and then add the peppers, stir and simmer for a further 10 mins or until the sauce slightly thickens.

6. The meatballs should be ready to come out of the oven now, so bring them out and add them to the sauce and you can add the basil leaves now if you using them.

7. Keep the sauce on the low heat, whilst in another saucepan bring some water to the boil and add the spaghetti. Wait for it to soften before stirring so the pasta doesn't stick together or to the bottom of the pan.

8. It takes about 10-11 mins to cook the spaghetti. Once cooked drain in a colander and pour some boiling water from the kettle over it to prevent it from sticking together.

9. Dish up the spaghetti and add the meatballs and sauce over the top. Garnish with basil leaves if you have any and serve with some parmesan or grated cheddar cheese. 

and then enjoy! 


Costings

So this meal can be as cheap as you want to make it. I prefer to use a better quality sausage with a higher meat content for the meatballs. These were a little more expensive than the budget sausages, but the best price i could fine was £1.19 for 8 pork sausages from Lidl. I know that the big supermarkets will often have deals for the butchers choice sausages occasionally so you can normally pick them up for around a £1 a pack.


  • Onions from lidl were 63p for a bag of 8 that works out around 8p each.
  • Garlic was 25p per bulb and we used 4 cloves, that's about 10p. 
  • Peppers are expensive but you can pick up a bag of 5 for £1.65 only green and yellow variety. That works out as 33p each. 
  • Chopped tomato cans were 31p in Lidl 
  • Spaghetti was actually cheaper in Tesco at 19p for a pack of 500g. 

All the rest of the ingredients are totally optional but if you are interested I found worcestershire sauce for a 99p in Lidl and cider is a cheaper alternative to wine and you can get more for your money. Dry Cider can be found around £2 for 2l.

So for the basic meal without the optionals this meal will cost you £3.42 for 5 - 6 servings

All the extras added in will cost you £3.84 


I hope you enjoy this meal, its a real tasty dinner and one of my favourites.



1 comment:

  1. This looks amazing! Keep up the good work you two. You are truly an inspiration!

    ReplyDelete