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Meat Recipes Red Meat

Fettuccine with Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

I can’t find a better way to mark my return to the blogosphere than sharing my favourite Italian dish of pasta and meatballs.

But first thing first, I apologise about the post drought on my blog.

It has been a crazy past couple of months from house hunting to moving house. Being in awe with the walk-in closet and the semi-new interior of the house we’ve just moved into, we missed the obvious – the phone line. The house didn’t come with a phone line. Since the move we have been surviving on wireless internet which for some reason, the reception is pretty crap. Apparently it has something to do with the fact that the roof is made of tin and not tile. This house is definitely not ADSL friendly. As I couldn’t leave my blog unattended any longer, I will be juggling between preparing blog posts offline at home and uploaded at work until a knight in a shining armour i.e my phone company technician come to my rescue.

Anyway back to my Italian fix.

Whilst Bolognese is my go-to Italian fix on week days, meatball pasta is my weekend treat.  The key of good meatball pasta is obviously the sauce. It requires patience and time to ensure the flavours from the meatballs develops in the tomato sauce over slow heat. It’s definitely not something you can rush and get over and done with. Don’t you agree?

Fettuccine with Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

(Serves 4-6 people)

Recipe:-

  • 1kg ground beef
  • 3 small onions (or about 2 large onions), peeled and roughly diced
  • 3 cloves of garlic, peeled
  • ½ cup of fresh breadcrumbs (or one of the first slices of bread in a loaf)
  • ½ cup parmesan, grated
  • About 1.5 tbsp Masterfoods Italian Herbs or any dried mixed Italian herbs of your choice
  • Freshly grind black pepper (about 5-6 times)
  • Salt to taste (approximately a tbsp)
  • 3 X 400g canned chopped tomatoes
  • 4-6 servings worth of  fettuccine or any long pasta of your choice (I’ve used about 750g/26 oz of San Remo Fettuccine)
  • Additional grated parmesan for garnish
  • Chopped fresh parsley for garnish

(To ease the preparation work for this recipe, I use a small food processor.)

Methods:-

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius (392 F).

2. To make fresh breadcrumbs, process a slice of fresh bread.  Set aside in a bowl. Skip this step if you already have pre-made ones.

Note – If you don’t like the first and last slices of bread in a loaf or the bread crusts like myself, instead of throwing them away, I will save them up (kept in the fridge, of course) and use them for making fresh breadcrumbs.

 

 3.  In the same food processor, process garlic and onions until becomes fine particles.

 

 4. In a large mixing bowl, combine ground beef, half of the onion-garlic mixture, 1 tbsp dried oregano, ½ cup grated parmesan, breadcrumbs, black pepper and salt until it forms meat dough. I used my hands for this step.

 

 

 5. Then form tablespoonfuls of mixture into balls and place them on an aluminium/baking paper lined tray.  Bake for 15 minutes or until well browned.  Please note that the meatballs that didn’t make it to the tray I decided to pan fry them in step 6.

Feel free to pan fry the whole batch of meatballs instead of baking them. For me to stand through the whole process of pan frying a tray of meatballs is a bit arduous. 😛 Hence the ones which couldn’t fit onto the baking tray will be  pan fried in order to get the flavour bits in the olive oil that will enhance the sauce.

 6. Heat some olive oil in a large pot over high heat. When the oil is hot, add meatballs and cook, turning occasional until the meatballs are slightly browned on all sides. Remove from pot and set aside.

 

  7. In the same pot, (while it is still hot and flamin’) add the remaining onion-garlic mixture and sauté over high heat until the onion is translucent. Lower the heat to low-medium, add ½ tbsp of dried oregano and tomato sauce.

 

 8. Cook the sauce over medium – high heat until it starts to boil. Then turn the heat to the minimum and simmer for 1 hour. Get ready a glass of water beside the pot.  Check and gently stir every so often and add more water when the consistency becomes too thick (or begins to stick on the bottom of the pot).

 9. An hour later, the sauce is ready. Season the sauce with salt and pepper to taste. In the meantime, cook fettuccine in a separate large pot of boiling salted water until al dente. Drain and set aside.

 10. To serve:  Using a cooking tong or large serving fork, place some fettuccine on to a place and ladle some meatball sauce over it. Scatter some grated parmesan and chopped parsley.

 


15 Comments

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Comments

  1. raquel@eRecipe.com says

    February 24, 2012 at 8:02 am

    You are right a good pasta will be remembered because of the sauce. Yummy pasta! =)

    Reply
    • Emily says

      February 25, 2012 at 3:03 am

      Hi raquel, thanks for ur comment.

      Reply
  2. ayrine says

    February 24, 2012 at 8:13 am

    it looks soooo yummy! will definetly try this on weekend. thanks for the recipe!!
    x

    Reply
    • Emily says

      February 25, 2012 at 3:02 am

      Thanks for your comment. I would love to get some feedback from you. 🙂

      Reply
  3. Ashley @ The Latest Find says

    February 25, 2012 at 1:55 am

    This looks absolutely delicious, spaghetti is my favorite meal. Found ya on Food Gawker, thanks for sharing this recipe, can’t wait to try it!! New follower. =)

    Reply
    • Emily says

      February 25, 2012 at 3:01 am

      Thanks Ashley! I hope u will enjoy the recipe. I don’t think u can go wrong with meatball pasta. Yum!

      Reply
  4. Simply Tia says

    February 25, 2012 at 4:00 am

    That is out of the world gorgeous!!! Wow! Beautiful photos!

    Reply
  5. Lori @ RecipeGirl says

    February 25, 2012 at 8:21 pm

    This pasta looks simply perfect! Total comfort food for me 🙂

    Reply
    • Emily says

      February 26, 2012 at 4:32 am

      Agree. Thanks Lori! 🙂

      Reply
  6. Amy's Cooking Adventures says

    February 26, 2012 at 1:39 am

    These look just perfect!

    Reply
    • Emily says

      February 26, 2012 at 4:31 am

      Thanks Amy!

      Reply
  7. Michelle/Mickle in NZ says

    February 26, 2012 at 10:58 am

    Mmmmm – delicious comfort food with ingredients I can get here – and I can easily scale down your recipe for feeding just me (I daren’t try this on my Zebby cat – the daft lad would probably decide to like it!)

    Super thanks for sharing, Michelle – across the ditch in Wellington

    Reply
  8. Rachel @ Bakerita says

    March 1, 2012 at 8:06 am

    This looks amazing! Nothing beats a good pasta and meatballs. Yummy!

    Reply
  9. saltele says

    March 2, 2012 at 1:18 pm

    Hmm i think this is a very interesting recipe because it looks so good. I will try it when i will go home tonight. Thanks for sharing and i promise to come back to tell you the result.

    Reply
  10. MaLinda says

    March 29, 2012 at 2:05 am

    This looks like the same meatball recipe my father uses! Gonna have to give it a try to see how close it is! I would love to see your Bolognese recipe, too!

    Reply

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