Tom Parker Bowles’s Spaghetti with Meatballs
Tom Parker Bowles is a British writer and food critic. He has published 5 books of his own recipes, and is regularly seen on TV and heard on the radio. From 2007 to 2010 Tom co-presented Market Kitchen on Good Food Channel, and he also presented LBC Radio’s Food and Drink Programme for a year.
He was a judge on the ITV Food series Food Glorious Food and Channel 9 Australian cooking series The Hot Plate. He is regularly seen as a guest critic on Masterchef. He puts his interest in cooking down to time spent in the kitchen with his mother, Her Majesty the Queen.
“I’m utterly delighted to be involved with such a brilliant charity. And what better way to raise money than the delectable Meatball Month. Cook, raise funds and eat meatballs. Magic.”
Tom Parker Bowles
Writer and Food Critic
SERVES: 4
DIFFICULTY: Easy
PREP TIME: 45 mins
COOKING TIME: 15 mins
Ingredients
500g Minced Pork
250g Minced Steak or Beef
1 Whole Egg & 1 Egg Yolk
85g Bread Crumbs soaked in
125ml milk for 10mins before
squeezing off excess liquid
2-5 Dried Chillies
1/2tsp of freshly ground Black Pepper
Sprinkle of Sea Salt Flakes
2 tbsp Olive Oil
500g Dried Spaghetti
Grated Parmesan to Serve
For the Sauce
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 and 1/2 Onions Finely Chopped
1-3 Fresh Thai or Finger Chillies
Finely Chopped
1 Clove of Garlic Finely Chopped
2 and 1/2 400g Cans of
Chopped Tomatoes
8 Basil Leaves, Torn
Method
Italian American food at its best, star of more mob movies than you can shake a caneloni at. Purists may argue that Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese’s red sauce splashed classic, was the meatballs greatest ever cinematic moment. “Veal, beef, pork…” Mumbles Vinnie, cooking up his prison feast. You gotta have the pork. That’s the flavour.” As well as cutting the garlic with a razor blade. But it’s actually in Point Break, Kathryn Bigelow’s brilliant film, where the meatball reaches its peak. So fine is the sandwich that it actually causes the cops, who are on a stakeout, to miss the bank being robbed. When done well, meatballs have that sort of effect.
STEP 1
to make the meatballs, mix the pork, beef, egg, egg yolk, bread crumbs and chilies together With a good pinch of salt and lots of pepper, then cover and chill for 30 minutes [the mixture, not you].
STEP 2
Meanwhile, to make the sauce, heat the oil in a saucepan, add the onions, chilies and garlic and cook gently until soft. Add the tomatoes, season, and simmer uncovered for 40 minutes. Add the basil at the end of the cooking time.
STEP 3
Roll the meat mixture into small, squash ball-sized balls. Heat the olive oil over a medium high heat in a frying pan and fry the meatballs for 2-3 minutes, leaving the inside a little underdone.
STEP 4
Cook the spaghetti in a large saucepan of boiling lightly salted water, following the timing on the pack. Five minutes before the spaghetti is ready, add the meatballs to the sauce and simmer for 5 minutes, until cooked. Drain the pasta and serve with the meatballs, sprinkled with Parmesan.