Spaghetti and Meatballs

Hey my lovelies,

Today's recipe is the ultimate comfort meal! Spaghetti and meatballs are a must-have for me when I go to New York, so I thought why not bring them home and make it for everyone! I'll be honest, I am someone that used store-bought pasta sauce in the past but once you've made it yourself you'll never go back!

Tips:

• A lot of people use beef and pork mince or beef, pork and veal mince. I can't eat pork so I decided to go for beef and lamb mince. Lamb/pork mince is nice and fatty so it'll give your meatballs extra flavour and will make them nice and moist

• The white bread mixed with milk is also what will give you the perfect moist meatball

Ingredients:

For the meatballs

350g beef mince

350g lamb mince

1 slice of white bread diced into small cubes

25ml milk

1/2 cup dried breadcrumbs

3 eggs

1 cup Parmesan cheese

1/2 cup Grana Padano cheese

A bunch of finely chopped parsley

1-2 tsp of chilli flakes

Salt & pepper to taste

For the sauce

5 tbsp olive oil

2 white onions finely chopped

4 small garlic cloves/2 big ones

2 tbsp sundried tomato paste

2 tins of chopped tomatoes

2 bay leaves

1 tsp sugar

Salt & pepper to taste

Instructions:

• Add your diced white bread into a bowl and add your milk, mix the milk and bread with your hands until combined. Mash lightly so you don't have chunks of bread in your meatballs

• In a large bowl add the beef mince, lamb mince, bread, breadcrumbs, parmesan, grana padano, parsley, chilli flakes, salt, pepper and eggs

• Mix until well combined with your hands. When mixing be careful not to over mix as you don't want your meatballs to dry out. You just want to use your fingertips to mix everything together

• Form your meat into meatballs and set to the side on a plate. Whilst making your last few meatballs heat a pan that has some depth to it over medium heat with 3 tbsp of olive oil

• Add meatballs to your pan in batches so you don't crowd the pan and brown on all sides (about 2-3 minutes per side) At this stage, you don't want to cook your meat all the way through so keep an eye on them

• In a separate pot add enough oil to cover the bottom and heat over medium heat.

• Add the onion and saute until soft and a light golden brown, add in the crushed garlic and fry for another 2 minutes.

• Add the sundried tomato paste, mix in with the onion and garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes

• Stir in 2 cans of chopped tomato, fill the cans halfway with water and stir into the sauce

• Add 2 bay leaves, salt, pepper, sugar and bring the sauce to a light boil and mix

• Add meatballs and any juice from the meatballs into the pot and make sure they are covered with the sauce

• Lower the heat to a low-medium heat and let your sauce and meatballs simmer for about 1 - 2 hours depending on how you like your sauce

• Cook your spaghetti as per packet instructions and serve

• You can either mix the spaghetti with the sauce and put your meatballs on top or just have plain spaghetti with your sauce and meatballs on top

• Enjoy! :)