Spaghetti Meatballs

Spaghetti Meatballs: All time favourite comfort food

There’s something about Italian food that just spells warmth and comfort. The flavours are so true to the ingredients, be it tomatoes, meats or the pasta. No one ingredient tries to over step on the other. It’s almost like playing in a symphony, a gastronomical one, of course.

Why also, I love this dish so much is, because it comprises my favourite form of meat, namely mince. Yes, I can have mince in any form and cuisine. But, of all the forms this one truly befits the crown for me.

This particularrecipe is inspired from a dish that a lovely German neighbour once made for usat her beautiful lake side farmhouse many years ago. So, this is a homage toher and to all the beautiful memories of the few childhood years we spent in a quaint little town called Heikendorf in Kiel, Germany.

P.S: In case, my family (who also love cooking and generally stick to traditional recipes) iswondering there seems to be a twist in the recipe, yes, you are right. This is my version of the dish, modified to add in a few more flavours. Perhaps alittle difficult to believe, but I have, on many occasions, managed to eat theentire portion below by myself over two sittings, and needless to say, passedout immediately thereafter into a very sound sleep.

Making the Dish

Now, before Istart the actual cooking, I always like to fix myself a delicious cooler. Today, I’m going to just have a classic float. So I just throw in a dollop of vanilla ice cream ( I find the Havemore brand really silky and perfect for adrink like this) into a chilled big mug of Thums Up (that’s right, instead of coke I prefer Thums Up since the vanilla ice cream is already pretty sweet,it’s better to cut down to a more punch packed cola which can get no better than the classic old Indian Cola king, ‘Thums Up’ (almost like our Indian version of America’s Dr.Pepper).

THE RECIPE

Serves: 4          

Time: 30 minutes

Spaghetti: Onepacket of 500 grams any good brand of wheat spaghetti  

P.S. I like touse the slightly thicker variety of spaghetti so the sauce gets absorbed better. You can use slimmer varieties too.

Mutton (Goat)meat mince: ½ Kilogram

Red Onions/shallot: 4 medium sized

Ginger: 1 inchpeeled piece

Garlic: 5 peeledcloves

Pepper corns:6-7 crush roughly

Tomatoes: 2medium sized

Tomato puree:one 200 gram box of tomato puree any good brand, I prefer Dabur Hommade

Egg: 1

Paprika: HalfTeaspoon

Basil: 4-5 freshbasil leaves

Dried Mixed Herbs:Oregano and dried crushed garlic

Oil: Olive orany low fat oil

Water: As statedbelow

Salt: as pertaste

Directions:

• Dice all the onions andtomatoes finely

• Dice the ginger and garlic

Rinse your handsnicely and have a few big gulps of the ice-cream float! It’ll help you relaxand plan the cooking process ahead. Also, the ice cream is melting so we needto pay as much attention to the float as we do to our cooking.

Cooking the Spaghettipasta:

• In a tall pot, pour about 1.5litres of water with a pinch of salt and drizzle some olive oil and bring to aboil

• Once the water is boiling,throw in the pasta and with a stirrer gently push it all in, to fit into thepot

• Boil for 5 minutes and checkwith a fork if almost cooked, then turn the gas off and strain it and sprinklea little olive oil while it rests (this will keep it from sticking)

• To check if the pasta iscooked, you can try a fun test by throwing a string of the pasta on the wall.If it is cooked, then it should stick to the wall and if it falls off, well youcan cook it another minute and then pull it off the gas

• Remember the pasta actuallycontinues to cook a little, even after taking it off the gas and can easily getovercooked and gooey

• If the pasta seems to beovercooked while straining, then throw in couple of ice cubes (this preventsfrom further melting/ cooking)

Here’s when wetake another few big sips (I call it sip now, as the ice-cream has probablyalready melted and blended in by now) of the delicious ice-cream float.

Preparing theGravy:

• In a deep bowl dish, pour about3-4 tablespoons of oil and add the onions (half portion being about 2 onions)

• Once the onions start sweatinga bit and turning pink, add the ginger and garlic (half portion)

• Add the pepper corns andpaprika powder

• In about two minutes, add the dicedtomatoes and sprinkle a little salt so they can release their juice and cookfaster

• Once the mix starts separatingoil, add the tomato puree and sprinkle a little of the herbs mix

• Cook for 5-6 minutes then add 2cups of water

• In the meantime, prepare the mincemeatballs

Preparing themeatballs:

• Mix: (Remainder) Half theportion of the diced onions and Half the portion of the diced garlic and gingertogether into the mince

• Sprinkle some pepper and salt

• Break the egg in a bowl andpour only half of it into the mince mixture

• Now with your hands mixeverything together and form equal sized meatballs about half the size of yourpalm (should be enough if they fit in your fist)

• Once the gravy comes to a boil,drop the meatballs in gently, one at a time, till all of them are inside thepot

• At this stage you can eitherpressure cook the gravy with the meatballs for 7- 8 minutes, being till onewhistle and then simmered on low flame; or then you can continue cooking it inthe same pot for about 10-15 minutes with a lid, stirring very gently inbetween

• Once the meatballs are cooked,just turn the gas off

• The gravy should be consistentand thick enough to move the meatballs and yet, not watery

• Serve a portion of theSpaghetti in a deep dish plate

• Now pour the meatballs gravy onthe spaghetti

• Sprinkle the remainder crushedpepper corns, mixed herbs and fresh basil leaves

P.S.: You can sprinklea little parmesan cheese on top while serving

Pour yourselfanother drink now, preferably something that compliments the meal and enjoy itwith your family or friends. Bon appetit.