Meatballs and pasta make a great midweek meal. They are quick and easy to cook and delicious and filling. The one downside is that shop bought ones are invariably full of fat and I’ve found the lower fat ones tend to break up when cooked, resulting in a burnt mess. So here are my home-made low-fat meatballs that can be made in under 10 minutes.
In a large mixing bowl, mix the beef mince with 100g of breadcrumbs, the seasoning and a beaten egg. Kneed well until you get a nice solid ball of beefy goodness. Split into around 32 evenly sized meatballs.
Bring a saucepan of water to the boil and throw in the pasta. About 5 minutes before the pasta is ready, heat a frying pan and coat surface with a little spray oil (to stop the meatballs sticking). Once up to temperature, add the meatballs to the pan and cook until nicely browned, taking care to avoid any side burning (with so little fat they can burn easily).
Once the meatballs are ready reduce the heat on the frying pan to a very low setting, drain the pasta and add it to the pan, stirring quickly to avoid the pasta sticking to the hot pan. Add the tomato passata and stir it in.
Serve in a bowl and top with parmesan.
Ingredients
- 500g extra lean beef mince
- 1/2 tsp of oregano
- 1 glove of finely diced garlic or 1 tsp of garlic granules
- 1 tsp of onion granules (I find fresh onion causes meatballs to burn more easily)
- 100g of breadcrumbs
- dash of salt and pepper
- approx 90g of dried pasta or 120g of fresh pasta per person
- approx 30g of parmesan per person