Meatballs and Spaghetti

I realised that I had not been blogging recipes for a while. Well, for some reasons, I just wanted to lounge around reading rather than writing. Maybe there's just too many exciting things going on ~ US housing and credit problems, superpowers round the world dishing out billions to save their arses, stock markets round the world crashing, petrol and commodities prices going down to don't know where, Malaysian to Australian dollars going strong (yippee), more food found with melamine and now the ammonium bicarbonate thingy. So who wants to be bothered with Greg and Nee right?! Translation into plain english : Lazy, but still eating!

Last week, Greg and I had cravings for meatballs. For him, Meatballs conjured IKEA Swedish Meatballs. So I sweat a little cause that is pretty good standard for meatballs. Luckily he likes my version. Otherwise there'd be No More Meatballs for the next five years for him.

Serve 3-4

Meatballs:
350 gm of beef mince
150 gm of pork mince
1 tbsp of finely chopped garlic
1 large egg
35 gm of bread crumb
40 gm of parmesan cheese powder
1/2 tbsp of dried oregano
2 tbsp of flour
1 teasp of salt and pepper to taste

1) Mix the minces with salt, pepper and oregano. Season for a little while before adding egg and garlic. Stir till even. Add parmesan cheese, bread crumb and flour. Stir till well mixed. Slap the mixture against a hard surface or in a bowl till the texture feels a little springy. Shape into balls. Recipe should make about 15-18 balls depending on the size.

2) In a pan with some oil, pan fry the balls till brown evenly on each side.

Spaghetti and Sauce
500gm of cooked spaghetti (oiled with olive oil) from about 180gm of dried ones, set aside
1 large onion, diced
4-6 pieces of rashers bacon, cut into small strips
3 tbsp of olive oil with 1 tbsp of butter
1 can of 400gm whole peel tomatos, mashed
some water
dash of brandy (optional)
salt and pepper to taste.

1) Heat up pan with olive oil and butter. Add onion and saute till soft and fragrant. Add bacon and continue sauteing till bacon shrinks and the mixture is fragrant.

2) Add the can of whole peel tomatos, mashing the tomatos up. Let mixture simmer a little before adding the browned meat balls. Add some more water if you like your spaghetti more saucy, followed by salt and pepper to taste. Let the mixture simmer in low fire till meat balls are cooked through and well coated with the sauce.

3) Add spaghetti to mixture and simmer a little before dishing out to serve. Sprinkle with parsley and finely grated mozarella (optional).