I’m really passionate about home cooking and making nutritious meals from scratch but being a super busy working Mum, I’m also a massive fan of a shortcut if it’s done with good quality ingredients and no artificial stuff.  I want to know where things come from and I want my boys to learn about good food.  I  want them to be enthusiastic about food and learn that real cooking doesn’t have to take all day and that anyone can do it.  You may know by now that I love comfort food and I think spaghetti and meatballs along with lasagne are Italy’s ultimate comfort foods. This recipe is a family favourite that I have reinvented using Spice N Tice’s Italian Meatball Marinara Seasoning Kit.

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If you want a new dish that the kids will love, has loads of flavour, that is easy to make and makes enough so that you have a super quick meal another day, then this is the recipe for you.

Spice-N-Tice

Spice-N-Tice is a Leicester (UK) based company that sells meal kits and rubs with 100% herbs and spices, no artificial colours or preservatives. Their kits are all gluten-free and slimming club friendly.  They prepare the blends in easy to use sachets so you don’t have to measure out ingredient after ingredient.

I love making the meatballs with a mixture of beef and pork mince as we like the combined flavour but you can use whatever meat you like.  You could also enjoy these meatballs in a sandwich or bread roll if you don’t fancy them with pasta.

As you can see this meal was a hit with both our boys, clean plates all round!

You can explore the Spice-N-Tice website and enjoy 20% off all products when you place an order with code MUMMYL20 by clicking here.

This recipe makes enough for two meals for two adults and two children. Half the recipe if you don’t have room in the fridge or freezer or don’t want to store a second portion.

Ingredients

For the meatballs:

400g Organic Beef Mince

400g Organic Pork Mince

2 eggs

2 cloves garlic (crushed)

100g breadcrumbs (I used two end slices of Schar gluten-free white loaf blended in a food processor)

2 tsp salt

1 sachet Italian Meatball Marinara seasoning

For the tomato sauce:

2 small red onions, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 tins chopped tomatoes

2 tbsp tomato puree

1tbsp balsamic vinegar

2tsp agave syrup

1 tsp dried oregano

Salt & pepper to season

Handful fresh basil

Pasta:

Allow 100g per adult and 50g per child. We love De Cecco pasta or gluten-free (brown rice) pasta.

Method

Start by making the meatballs. Put all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and mix by hand until really well combined.  Divide the mixture in half and then quarters in the bowl and then roll approximately 8 meatballs from each quarter of the mixture and arrange on a plate.  You should end up with 28-34 meatballs depending on how big you like them.

In a large frying pan heat a glug of olive oil and fry half the meatballs until nicely browned on all sides. You can now cover the plate with cling film and keep the remaining meatballs in the fridge for up to two days or store in a container in the freezer for up to three months.

When the meatballs are cooked, take out of the pan using tongs and arrange on a clean plate.

Using the oil left in the meatball pan, now make the sauce. Fry the onions and garlic for a few minutes until softened.  Add the rest of the ingredients apart from the basil, stir and leave to simmer and reduce.

Bowl the water for the pasta and cook as per the packet instructions.

After the sauce has simmered for 5 minutes, add the meatballs to the pan, stir and cover for the remaining cooking time to make sure thoroughly heated through.

At the last minute shred the fresh basil and add to the sauce.

Serve and enjoy with lots of grated parmesan cheese.

Three helpful Tips

*Tip*

Depending on how spicy or flavoured you want the meatballs to be, you don’t have to use the whole sachet. I used about three quarters as I didn’t want them to be too spicy for the boys.

*Tip*

You can decide whether to make the full sauce straight away or half the recipe and make fresh both times. It cooks in the time it takes to boil the pasta so it’s totally up to you!

*Tip*

If you want to use gluten-free spaghetti but haven’t tried it before, just make sure you keep stirring it whilst it cooks as it tends to really stick together.  To help with this ensure that the water is boiling in the saucepan before adding the pasta and don’t forget to salt the water too.

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Fancy giving it a go?  You can get 20% off every order you place on the Spice-N-Tice website using code MUMMYL20. Free shipping on all UK orders over £15.

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If you like this recipe you might also like:

Extra Greens Pesto

Beef Tacos

Vegan Sausage Pasta

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