JIM (Jac’s Italian Meatballs) and spaghetti
Last Tuesday night Jac made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. She made the meatballs from scratch but used a jar of tomato-based pasta sauce (not enough time after work to make meatballs AND sauce – hey, I’m not complaining!).
I am just amazed and grateful that anyone would come home after working all day and actually feel like making meatballs for dinner!
JIM (Jac’s Italian Meatballs)
Ingredients
500g beef mince
1 small clove garlic
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
1 tbsp chopped fresh seasonal basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp fried thyme
1 finely diced medium onion
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp psyllium husk (optional, this is for extra fibre. It was stealth fibre – I couldn’t even taste it!)
1 egg
3 slices of white bread, soaked in milk – use a fork or your fingers to break the soggy bread into small pieces so that you don’t end up with big pieces of white bread in your meatballs. The bread should be practically unnoticeable in the cooked meatballs (well, you should notice the moisture they add to the meatballs, but you shouldn’t be able see it in the meatballs and wonder, “what is this white stuff?”Method (sort of)
You basically combine all of the above, making sure it is all mixed thoroughly, and then form into balls.Jac cooked them in our big wok in a couple of batches, which was perfect for rolling/turning the meatballs for even cooking while keeping (and perhaps enhancing) their nice round shape. For the first batch of meatballs she used about 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. For the second batch of meatballs the wok was nicely seasoned from the first lot, so she didn’t need to add any more oil.
She cooked the meatballs to around 95% doneness and put half the meatballs aside (yep, you guessed it – for bento the next day!).
To the remaining meatballs in the wok, Jac added added a jar of pasta sauce (it was a basic tomato and garlic pasta sauce, Five Brothers or Dolmio or Leggos, one of those popular brands). She heated it all through until the sauce was hot and the meatballs were done.
We didn’t count how many meatballs came out of the mixture. The number will vary according to the size you make your meatballs.
She’d cooked wholemeal spaghetti to go with the meatballs and sauce. It’s always my job to taste the pasta and check for doneness. I find it a little tricky to discern if wholemeal pasta is done or not, as it’s got that extra hardness/roughness from being wholemeal. It took a few goes, but eventually I proclaimed the pasta done. I did devour a rather large serve of spaghetti and meatballs for my dinner. It was great.
