Springtime Pasta with Pork Meatballs

It was only a week ago that I cooked this dish, but it seems like it was months ago!  So much has happened - in the kitchen, anyway - since then!

So, scratching around in my brainbox, I seem to remember that I chose this recipe because a) I liked the "springtime" aspect of it and b) it was another "variation on a meatball", of which we must have quite a few, now.

I'm afraid that I rather killed the success of the dish for hubby, by using too much garlic in the meatball mixture (although the recipe states FOUR cloves of garlic - and I only put two!) and letting the sauce reduce too far before combining with the pasta .

However, son & heir and I both enjoyed our helpings - even if we were garlic-monsters for (probably) days afterwards.  I'm a bit confused over the garlic thing, truth be told, as even though I use jumbo garlic (with big fat cloves) the recipe didn't state "four small thin garlic cloves" - it just said "4 garlic cloves, crushed".  I reckon I'd have been fine with one clove of jumbo garlic and smaller meatballs, though.  The garlic flavour was a teensy bit on the side of raw garlic, which means that the cooking - although it had cooked the mince through - hadn't done justice to the grated garlic contained in the meatballs.  Smaller meatballs would solve that problem.

As for the sauce, well it was one of those cream sauces where you sit and watch it reducing to a suitable thickness, then think "is it too thin?" and leave it a bit longer - by which time it goes over and becomes too thick.  I really should learn to keep a little bit of pasta water back, so that I can let a thick sauce down when it calls for it.  Hey ho.

I included some shredded Little Gem lettuce in the recipe.  Son & heir was aghast at this idea, imagining soggy wet hot limp lettuce.  However, I put it into the sauce just fractionally before it was due to be served - and by the time it was served, the lettuce had just wilted and was still crunchy.  Perfect!

The lettuce added an additional texture and flavour to the dish that sat well with the "Springtime" theme and meant that you didn't need to use quite so many peas to achieve the same appealing colour (or should that be "a-pea-ling" colour?).

Hubby also reckoned that the sauce lacked flavour, which I can see where he was coming from with it.  I felt that the flavour was very subtle - and had been stamped all over by the sheer power of the garlic in the meatballs.  As such, I've included a little Worcestershire sauce in my version of the recipe.  I know that in pasta dishes like our Bacon & Leek Pasta, a little dash of Worcestershire sauce makes all the difference.

I might give this one another go - with less garlic, as per the recipe below - very soon and see if hubby likes it a little better.  However, in the interests of sharing, you might find that husbands and fathers aren't so keen on this one, as the rest of the family are!

SPRINGTIME PASTA & MEATBALLS   (feeds 3)

Ingredients :

400g pork mince
1 small onion, grated
1 garlic clove, grated
1 tsp lemon zest
50g grated Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp olive oil
400g pasta of your choice (spaghetti or spirali work well)
150ml double cream
a good splosh of Worcestershire Sauce (to taste, effectively)
150g frozen peas (petits pois work well)
1 Little Gem lettuce, leaves separated, washed well and shredded
handful of parsley, roughly chopped.


Method :


1.  In a bowl, mix the mince, garlic, zest and half the Parmesan, together with some salt & pepper.  Shape into 16 or so small (walnut sized) meatballs.


2.  Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the meatballs for 10-15 minutes, until a rich golden colour.


3.  In the meantime, put a large pan of lightly salted water on to boil and cook the pasta according to packet instructions.


4.  Drain and reserve some 150ml of the cooking liquid.


5.  Add the cream, Worcestershire sauce and a little of the pasta water to the meatballs, making sure the pan is deglazed at the same time.  Stir well to combine, then taste for seasoning and adjust if needs be.


6.  Add the peas and bring back up to temperature, bubbling until the sauce is thick and the meatballs are safely cooked through.


7.  Add a little more pasta water if the sauce has reduced too far, then add the lettuce & parsley, stir through, combine with the pasta and serve immediately with the remainder of the Parmesan sprinkled over the top.


Printable version
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Meal planning for a new week

We met again on Monday last, across a bed strewn with recipes, notepads, pens and Jack Russell terriers - and planned this week's meals.  Oh, the romance!

Well, actually, making a menu plan is a nice excuse for a cup of coffee and a couple of hours spent talking (almost exclusively) about food, flavours, what goes with what, what might go with what, what cooking methods to use, what turns out to be way too expensive, etc.  Allow for a bit of deviation from the focus of the conflab, to scratch a dog's ears or retrieve a pen from the other dog's mouth - you can imagine, if you've ever owned a dog, I'm sure.

We started from a position of "what do we know for sure we'll be cooking?", moved on to "what have we been yearning for?" and "what have we had in mind to cook?", winding up with "what's a family favourite that's easy to do?".

The final list looks like this :

Tues : Pizza

Weds : Springtime Pasta and meatballs

Thurs : Maneating Chicken, roast sweet potato with sesame broccoli & beans
Fri : Kari Udang with rice

Sat : Tarragon Chicken & Asparagus, Jersey Royals, broccoli & peas

Sun : Slow Roast Cinnamon, Fennel & Cirtus Lamb with Roast Rosemary & Sea Salt Jersey Royals, Green spring vegetable Thoran & gravy.

Mon : Chilli con carne with potato wedges.

Well, Tuesday's Pizza doesn't come into any of the categories above, as it forms a bit of a breathing space in between weeks.  It's good to just chuck a pizza into the oven every so often - and it's always a winner with son & heir.

Eat at lunchtime .. sleep rest of day

Wednesday's Springtime Pasta and Meatballs got bounced from last week owing to our having broken our tummies by eating the remains of the Tuna & Vegetable Lasagne for lunch.  I hasten to add that they weren't broken in a bad way, just broken in a "I couldn't eat another thing for many hours" kind of way.

Everything was keepable - even the Little Gem lettuce, which has kept very well in the vegetable drawer of the fridge - so it was easy to bounce along to this week.

Thursday's "Maneating Chicken" originated as "Man pleasing chicken", but the name got adjusted along the way by hubby.  He discovered the original recipe on the Witty in the City website and loved both the look and the sound of the recipe - plus, its reputation as "man pleasing chicken" is always a good sign.

He's going to be making roast sweet potatoes in a very similar fashion to the roast butternut squash (except with different spicing) that we had this last weekend with the pork.  It will be interesting to see how they turn out, as I have a great deal of problem getting sweet potato to caramelise and look roasted, instead of just mushed!

I think this one qualifies under the "what have we been yearning for?" category, as hubby has always wanted to find a really really good chicken recipe - one which knocks spots off of all the others.

The Kari Udang is a Malaysian recipe recommended to me by The Spice Traders.   Taken from their website, it has required a bit of sourcing of things like curry leaves and fenugreek, but we (pretty much) had the remainder of the spices in the cupboards and fridge already.  I really like prawn curries and we've picked up some King Prawns to use, so I'm crossing my fingers that it'll be great.  I think this one comes under the "what have we had in mind to cook" category, as I'm always in the market for an authentic Malay recipe.

Saturday's Tarragon Chicken with Asparagus is a recipe from this month's BBC Good Food magazine.  The minute I saw the photograph, it was love at first sight and I knew I had to make it - and soon.  It doesn't seem to have hit their website yet, or I'd show it to you - but take it from me that it looked completely gorgeous.

Cooked with lovely steamed Jersey Royal potatoes (which are our favourite type of new potato), broccoli and peas, I think it'll make a superb Saturday dinner.

Hubby's back in the kitchen with his "Sunday Lunch Chef" hat on next. We were originally planning on a salmon dish - right up until I saw an advert for reduced price lamb at Tesco.  I'm afraid I was swayed by this and we drove down to our local Tesco and made off with a leg of lamb just this morning.  We have since reconvened the brainstorming session (complete with accompanying Jack Russells, ever keen to be in the midst of a major conflab) and come up with what sounds like a terrific menu for Sunday's lunch.

Photograph c/o BBC Good Food website

It will now be a slow roasted leg of lamb - marinated in lemon & orange, rubbed with cinnamon, fennel & garlic, then roasted for a minimum of 4 hours.  As side dishes, we've come up with roast Jersey Royals with sea salt & rosemary, after which we go off up a complete side road with an Anjum Anand recipe for Green Spring Vegetable Thoran.  You can find the exact same recipe here, although it isn't credited to Anjum at all, so I don't know who got which from whom - but here it is, anyway.  The Thoran has no sauce as such, so will go very nicely with the lamb & potatoes, leaving us the elbow room in the ingredients list to make a lovely gravy from the lamb pan juices.


Wish hubby luck with this one, he's not going to need it, but he is going to need some support with just thinking about creating it all and having it all go right!

Good old Chilli con Carne makes another showing on the menu list for Bank Holiday Monday.  We all love this one, but to make it a little different this time, we thought we'd serve it with potato wedges.  It all depends on whether we've a lot of potatoes going wrinkly as to whether we make the wedges or just chuck some in the oven from the freezer!

Either way, with grated cheese and some sultanas to sprinkle on the top (you don't have sultanas?  What?  Try it, next time!) I know it'll be empty bowls all round.

I don't suppose the weather will do anything but rain, however, with the chance that we might see some sun on that day I've purposely not scheduled anything that takes a long time to make.  It'd be nice to get out and see something other than these four walls! 

Ruby's first crop of rhubarb - plenty more where that came from!

As for extra cooking, well we're still on the lookout for a good rhubarb chutney recipe and I've still to bake a cake.  I'm guaranteeing nothing where either of them are concerned, it all depends upon finding the right recipe (or dreaming one up!) and the time available!

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