Serves 4-6
Combining my everyday tomato sauce with baked meatballs and store-bought pasta makes for a quick and easy weeknight dinner. Yes, you read that right, a homemade tomato sauce from scratch is a quick and easy dinner! Add some fresh salad greens with a dash of sea salt and a drizzle of olive oil, and you have a complete meal.
Ingredients:
Sauce:
- 400g tinned plum tomatoes
- 1 cup (250ml) water
- 1 Tbsp tomato pate
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp dried basil
- ½ tsp dried parsley
- ½ tsp dried thyme
- ½ tsp dried cilantro
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ stick (2cm) cinnamon
Meatballs:
- 500g minced meat, pork or beef or a combo of both
- 1 cup fine breadcrumbs
- 1 egg
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ½ tsp dried basil
- ¼ tsp dried thyme
- ¼ tsp dried parsley
- 150g shredded cheese
Pasta:
- 4 litres water
- 500g uncooked pasta
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F).
- Combine all ingredients in a medium sauce pan, breaking up the tomatoes with your hands (alternately you can use an immersion blender to puree them before adding the rest of the ingredients).
- Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 20-30 minutes just until it thickens, stirring occasionally.
- While sauce is simmering, make the meatballs. Combine all ingredients except the cheese in a large bowl, mixing well with your hands. Form into 2-3cm diameter meatballs (approx. 2Tbsp of mixture).
- Give the sauce a stir if you haven't yet.
- In a large skillet over medium-high heat, fry meatballs in batches until browned but not cooked inside. Set cooked meatballs aside while you fry the remainder, it’s okay if they cool down.
- The sauce should be done by now. Remove from heat. Remove and discard bay leaf and cinnamon stick.
- In a large (30cm x 40cm) deep baking dish spread the pasta sauce, fully covering the bottom. Arrange the meatballs in the sauce, pushing them down so they are in the sauce.
- Bake for 15 minutes.
- While the meatballs are baking, fill a large stock pot with 4 litres of water. Bring to a boil over high heat.
- Add the uncooked pasta to the boiling water plus 1 tsp of salt. Boil for 12-14 minutes until done.
- After 15 minutes of baking (right about when you've added your pasta to the water), remove the meatball tray from oven, top with shredded cheese, then continue baking for 15 minutes until the cheese is melted to you liking.
- Drain the pasta. Serve with the baked meatballs and sauce.
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