This weekend so happened to be Easter so I was off from school on Friday (the school was closed but I didn’t have any classes on Friday to begin with). My brother wasn’t going to be home for dinner, so my mom and I thought that we could make a meal that my brother can’t eat (he’s lactose in tolerant).

I was browsing through sortedfood’s website (I recently found this amazing website thanks to Youtube) and I wanted to make spaghetti and meatballs (since most meatballs contain egg). But surprisingly, this recipe did not contain egg…so we went ahead and gave it a go.!

Ingredients (I used):

1 medium onion

2 cloves of garlic

1kg of ground beef

1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard (any will work)

splash of Worcestershire sauce

handful of chopped rosemary (I used frozen rosemary, but I think frozen and dry rosemary works. Fresh rosemary will give the meatballs more aroma)

oil (original recipe asks for olive oil)

1 tablespoon of tomato paste (original recipe uses tomato puree)

1 can of tomatoes (original recipe asks for 2 cans of diced, but if you have whole canned tomatoes, you can just chop them up. Works just as well).

Water (original recipe asks for beef stock)

Pinch or brown sugar (original recipe uses (white) sugar

300g of fusilli pasta (about a box of pasta)

parmesan cheese (to your liking)

I did not follow the exact recipe, as this was a last minute decision. The original recipe uses basil, cheddar cheese and red wine is optional.

1. Preheat oven to 350^oF
2. dice onion and tomatoes
3. finely chop garlic and rosemary
4. grate cheese
5. combine ground beef, diced onion, half the garlic and rosemary together
6. add Dijon mustard  and Worcestershire sauce to combination
7. roll combination into balls, depending on your size liking (my mom rolled the meatballs into small golfballs) (for better results, have the balls sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to firm up)
8. heat a pan and add oil to pan sear the meatballs
9. DO NOT cook meatballs thoroughly as they will continue to cook in the tomato sauce
10.  Turn off the heat when meatballs are done searing
11.  In a pot, fry the remaining garlic in oil
12.  Add tomatoes, puree and water and wait until it boils
13.  Add meatballs and turn heat to medium when the sauce is boiling
14. Simmer for about 15-20 minutes
15. In the meantime, boil water and cook the pasta in salted water
16. Drain the pasta and mix pasta and meatball sauce together
17. In an oven proof dish, pour the pasta and meatballs. Top with grated cheese and bake for about 10 minutes

optional: serve with vegetables or side salad

A link is provided below, to see the full recipe and step by step video. http://sortedfood.com/#!/meatballpastabake/