Easy Baked Spaghetti and Meatballs

I wasn’t intending on this being a blog post, but it tasted so good I had to share it.

I made this for our dinner over the weekend and snapped a couple of quick photos before I dished it up. It was literally a bit of a ‘throw together’ job which was made in well under an hour but was really delicious. The meatballs were juicy and the spaghetti had picked up the lovely tomato flavours from the sauce.

If you want to get some veggies into this then I’m sure you could fit some grated carrot and even some grated zucchini into either the meatballs or the sauce. Serve it with some garlic bread and salad, or just on its own.

Ingredients – serves 4:

• 1 onion, finely diced
• 2 teaspoon dried mixed herbs (or oregano if you prefer)
• approx 600g/21 oz beef mince (ground)
• 1 teaspoon wholegrain mustard
• 1 teaspoon dried garlic granules
• 1 tbsp oil, vegetable or olive
• 3/4 cup red wine (any type is fine)
• 2 and 1/2 cups tomato passata (or your favourite tomato pasta sauce)
• black pepper, to season
• 250g/9 oz dried spaghetti
• 1 cup grated cheese (I used tasty, but cheddar is fine)
• finely grated parmesan, to top, optional
• fresh parsley leaves, to serve, optional

Method:

• Put half the onion, 1 teaspoon of herbs, plus all the beef mince (ground), mustard, and garlic into a large bowl and use your clean hands to mix together.
• Form the meat mixture into 12 meatballs, (about the size of golf balls), and place on a plate. If you have time put them in the fridge to cool for a little while as this helps them not to fall apart, but don’t worry if you want to cook them straight away as they will be fine if treated gently 🙂
• Heat the oil in a large, deep frying pan and then cook the meatballs for 5-10 minutes, turning regularly using tongs. Once the meatballs are well browned all over, add the wine to the pan and bring to the boil.
• Turn all the meatballs so they can soak up a little of the wine, then transfer the meatballs to a plate (leave the wine in the pan).
• Put the remainder of the onion and dried herbs into the frying pan with the wine and then add the tomato passata and season with pepper. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and leave to simmer for 5 minutes.
• Heat your oven to 200C/180C fan forced/390F.
• Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in a large pan of salted boiling water until just al dente (about 7-8 minutes, but check the packet instructions). Once cooked, drain off the water.
• Transfer the drained spaghetti to an ovenproof dish, then place the meatballs on top.
• Carefully pour over the tomato sauce, then top with the grated cheese.
• Bake for 15 minutes, then remove from the oven and top with the parmesan (if using).
• Bake for another 10 minutes or until the cheese is golden and the sauce is bubbling.
• Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes before topping with the fresh parsley (if using).
• Serve and enjoy!