Meatballs & Spicy Tomato Sauce Pasta

Serving: 15

Meatball Ingredients

4Ib                         Ground beef

6                           Shallot (finely diced)

4                           Red chilli (finely diced)

2                           Green chilli (finely diced)

2 tbsp                    Dried mixed herbs

8 cloves                  Garlic (crushed)

2                           Eggs

10oz                      Bread crumbs

Salt/Pepper

Instructions

1. Sweat the shallots, red and green chillies in a pan with a touch of oil until softened but without colour.
2. Allow to cool then add to ground meat with the eggs and the bread crumbs  and season well.
3. Mix well and mould into small balls allow to rest in the fridge for about half an hour.
4. Heat your sauce in a pot on the stove and add the raw meatballs to the hot sauce.  (recipe below)
5. Once you have added all the balls it is important that you do not stir the pot as it will break up the balls.
6. Place the pot into the oven or a casserole dish cover with a lid and bake in the oven for 2 hours at 300°F. 

Sauce Ingredients

4 x 14 oz               Chopped tinned tomatoes

6                            Sticks celery, small chopped

4                           Red onion, diced

4 oz                        Tomato puree

2 tsp                       Chilli flakes

1tbsp                     Dried mixed herbs

1 clove                  Garlic, crushed

1 tbsp                    Sugar to taste

Juice                    ¼ lemon to taste

Oil

Seasoning

Instructions

1. Heat a heavy bottomed pan and add a dash of olive oil.  Add the chopped celery and diced red onion and sweat for 5 minutes without coloring.
2. Add the garlic and continue to cook for 1 minute before adding the tomatoes, the puree and the remaining ingredients. 
3. Stir well and cook slowly for 30 minutes.  Season to taste adding either the lemon juice or the sugar as required. 
4. You can either leave the sauce coarse or blitz in a food processor for a smoother sauce and finish. Whichever you prefer!  At this point you can add fresh herbs such as basil, marjoram or oregano.

Serve with your favorite pasta.

Storage

This will keep for 72 hours in the fridge.

Once cooked cool as quickly as possible, this can be done in the pot in a sink of ice-cold water of in a large tray.

You can double the recipe for the sauce and freeze half of it in Ziploc bags. The sauce can be used for lots of different dishes. Pizza topping, plain pasta sauce or the base to a creamy tomato pasta with the addition of some heavy cream.