Meatballs with Spaghetti

(0 rating - rate this recipe)

An hour seems a long time to cook meatballs, but it's well worth the wait with the enhancement if flavour and tenderness.

Prep: 30 mins

Cook: 1 hour

Serves 4

Low Fat

Excellent source of iron

Ingredients

Beef

500g Quality Mark beef mince
½ cup parsley leaves, finely chopped
¼ cup fresh white breadcrumbs
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon dried oregano

Spaghetti sauce

1 onion, finely sliced
2 x 400g cans chopped tomato in juice
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon brown sugar (optional)
350g dried spaghetti

To serve

2 courgettes, trimmed, peeled into ribbons and blanched
1 bag baby spinach
grated cheese

Method

Beef

Place the beef mince, parsley, breadcrumbs, egg, milk and oregano in a large bowl. Season and mix well using clean hands. Divide mince mixture into 16 meatballs, rolling them gently. Place on a large plate then cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Spaghetti sauce

Heat a dash of oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Remove meatballs from the refrigerator and place in the frying pan. Cook until browned, then transfer to a plate. Lower heat, add the onion and cook until soft. Add the tomatoes, red wine vinegar and sugar if using. Return meatballs to the frying pan, cover and cook over a low heat for 1 hour. Check from time to time to check they are not sticking to the bottom.

Just before the meatballs are cooked, place a large saucepan of lightly salted water on to boil. Add the spaghetti and cook for 8 minutes. Drain spaghetti reserving about 1 cup of the cooking water. Add cooking water to the meatballs to loosen the sauce.

To serve

Gently toss together the meatballs, sauce, spaghetti and green vegetables and place in a large warmed serving bowl. Sprinkle with your favourite grated cheese.

Suitable Cuts
Nutrition
Tips & Tricks

BEEF OR LAMB MINCE

Nutrition Information Per Serving

Serving size: 569g

Energy kJ (kcal)	1576 (376)
Protein (g)	19.9
Fat (g)	4.6
Saturated (g)	1.6
Carbohydrate (g)	58.4
Sugars (g)	11.9
Sodium (mg)	1030
Iron (mg)	3.8
Zinc (mg)	3.5
Vitamin B12 (ug)	0.8
Vitamin D (ug)	N/A
Selenium (ug)	34.2

Chilling meatballs prior to cooking will help maintain their shape during cooking.
Get some little hands helping along the way, molding the meatballs is the perfect job for kids.
To boost the fibre content of this dish, use wholegrain breadcrumbs and wholegrain pasta.