Tag: Italian

Italian meatballs with fusilli

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I’ve traditionally just made Swedish meatballs, because I’m half Swedish and was taught to make them that way by my mother.  They’re delicious and I would still say the best.  However, at a slight loose end for dinner the other night, I decided to go with the Italian style meatball to complement a tomato sauce I had in the freezer from about a month back.  The parmesan in these meatballs makes them taste absolutely amazing.  Lots of mmm’ing from me and my wife when we ate this.

Italian meatballs and fusilli (2 – 4 portions)

Ingredients

  • 400g good quality beef mince
  • 1dl almond milk
  • 1/2 dl bread crumbs
  • 1 shallot, minced
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 tsp parsley (dry or fresh)
  • 1 tsp dijon mustard
  • 1 egg
  • 10-20g freshly grated parmesan
  • 400g tomato sauce
  • Fusili for 2 – 4 portions

Method

  1. Start cooking the fusilli
  2. Soak the breadcrumbs in almond milk until the breadcrumbs have been absorbed
  3. Mix all ingredients except tomato sauce and fusilli into a mixing bowl
  4. Roll into your desired size meatballs (I do about 2-3cm thick which yields about 20 meatballs)
  5. Fry in a decent amount of oil until cooked through and golden on the outside
  6. Stir in tomato sauce and simmer for 5 mins covered
  7. Pour over fusilli in bowls

 

Dead easy, one portion pasta (G.C.P.H. Fusilli Bucati)

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I didn’t take a picture of this one because I didn’t think it would be anything special, but it was a damn good little snack/lunch size portion so I decided to share it.

This one was made by me for me as a snack because it was a bit hungry but couldn’t be bothered with a faff. Pretty customisable so just use whatever you have lying about.

Garlic, Cheese, Pine nuts and Herbs Fusilli Bucati (makes enough for 1)

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 dl Fusilli Bucati (or any pasta you want)
  • 10-20g grated ossau iraty
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1 tsp pine nuts
  • 2-4 fresh basil leaves
  • 1-2 fresh sage leaves
  • 1 tbsp Creme fraiche
  • Salt/pepper

Method

  1. Bring a pot of water to a boil and then cook pasta per instructions on pack.
  2. Chop up the basil, sage, pine nuts and garlic and mix together with the cheese.
  3. When pasta is boiled drain, but keep a bit of the liquid in the bottom of the pan.
  4. Place pasta back in the pan and add the rest of the ingredients (including creme fraiche, salt and pepper to taste)
  5. Serve with a bit of grated cheese and cracked black pepper on top.

Babish’s Pizza

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I’m not even going to pretend that I tweaked this one.  Go over the Binging with Babish here to watch how to do this one and then proceed to get hooked on watching them.  They’re awesome.  He’s awesome.  Usually they’re easy enough to follow.

For this version, I topped it with one Galbani mozzarella and some basil leaves.  I probably should have used less mozzarella as it got all liquidy in the middle, but it still tasted awesome.

I’m going to try some different tweaks to the dough and sauce and if I get any better at it, I’ll update you.

Notes:

  • I used my bread board as a pizza peel – it worked just fine
  • I didn’t have a pizza stone, so I turned my oven’s baking tray upside down and placed it at the top of the oven
  • I turned the oven up to the max temp
  • I spritzed water in the oven before cooking, but no idea if that really made a difference