Recipe - Meatballs in a spicy tomato sauce with tagliatelle

This is a recipe for homemade meatballs simmered in a tomato sauce, served over some tagliatelle.

As (almost) always this recipe is very easy to freestyle, add and subtract ingredients as you wish.

I might upset some pasta aficionados and/or Italians by my next sentence, but hey - it's been some time since I last upset someone. After I've drained the pasta I normally put it back in the pan and take a couple of spoons of the pasta sauce and swirl around in the pan. Sort of coating the pasta with the sauce. Not sure if that's the proper thing to do, but I do it.

The reason I went for chicken stock? I had some. ;) Besides, it gives the meal some symmetry. Beef, pork and fowl. It doesn't get much better for a meatatarian like me ;)

Ingredients (made 22 meatballs)
250g pork mince
250g low fat beef mince
Parmesan, grated - to taste
Shallots, finely chopped - to taste
Garlic, finely chopped - to taste
One medium egg
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
Stock, approximatively 200ml
Crushed Tomatoes
Red onion, sliced
Roasted peppers, skin removed, chopped into large chunks
Chili Flakes, to taste
Fresh Basil, torn
Parsley, finely chopped
Tagliatelle

Method
Mix the mince, parmesan, shallots, garlic, egg and season. Let it set for a bit and then roll the meatballs, wet your hands and it's easier.

Once the meatballs are done you can heat up the olive oil in the frying pan and fry off the meatballs. When they start to get a bit of colour you can add the onion and keep frying for a bit.

Add the tomatoes (I blitzed mine to get rid of the 'lumps'), stock, roasted peppers, chili flakes and the torn basil.

Let this simmer away on a low heat.

Did you forget about the tagliatelle? Crap. Time to get some salted water boiling and have a look at the packaging to see how long the tagliatelle needs to boil for.

Let the tomato sauce simmer further.

Once the pasta is done and the sauce has reduced nicely, drain the pasta. Put it back in its pan and add a couple of spoonfuls of the pasta sauce and mix it up.

Put tagliatelle, meatballs and tomato sauce onto your plate. Finish off with some fresh chopped parsley.

Enjoy!