15-Minute Meatballs and Spaghetti

I inherited a beautiful pasta sauce recipe that takes 90 minutes to cook. When I have time I love tending to the flavours and textures. On a Wednesday at 4:50 when the kids have collectively lost their minds and are taking turns to say, “I’m hungry” on a 7-second rotation, I need something rather faster than a complex 90 minute sauce. This is when I can whip up a kid-friendly meatballs and spaghetti dish in 15 minutes.

INGREDIENTS
Serves 2 Kids (under 8 years)
100g spaghetti
salt
1tbs of olive oil
4 Lincolnshire sausages
25g of breadcrumbs (or crushed up crackers)
1tbsp milk
120ml passata
60ml water
1/2 tsp sugar

optional: 1 tsp prepared garlic (from a jar or tube)
freshly grated parmesan. If you want to make an adult batch too try adding a tsp of dried oregano, 1 tsp of Worcestershire sauce and 1/4 tsp of chilli flakes to add more flavour.

• Fill a medium saucepan 3/4 with water and 1tsp of salt and put on a medium/high heat.
• Put the breadcrumbs or crushed crackers into a bowl and pour over the milk to soften then squeeze the sausage meat out of the skins into the same bowl and squish to combine.
• Put the oil into a frying pan on a medium high heat. Roll out the meat into 9-12 equally sized balls then tip them all into the hot frying pan and give the pan a gentle shake to coat in oil.
• Now that the water is boiling, cook your pasta while the meatballs cook.
• Cook the meatballs for 4 minutes before turning to brown on another side and cook for 3 minutes then turn again and brown for 3 minutes. Make sure your heat’s not too high.
• By now your pasta should be ready to drain. Add the pasta to the meatball pan then pour over the passata, sprinkle over the sugar and 1/4 tsp of salt then pour over the water and stir.
• Heat through for 2 minutes on a medium heat then serve. Let the kids grate over some parmesan and get into a lovely meatball-y mess.