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Last night, on the way home, I craved pasta with meatballs. Don't ask me why, ok. I just did. It occurred to me that I'd never made meatballs before and I had no recipe so I guessed based on, well, burgers. Sort of. I mixed 1kg of beef mince (my house mate can hoover up leftovers like they're going out of fashion) with 1 large egg, a liberal heap (between a tbsp and a tsp) of rosemary herb salt, lots of ground black pepper, a tbsp of minced garlic (I forgot I had no fresh in the house) and some cayenne pepper to taste (I'd guess about the same as the salt since I like my meatballs spicy). Then I mixed by hand and fried off a patty to check for seasoning. I balled them up to slightly smaller than golf ball size and fried them in a little olive oil - turning regularly. Straight out of the pan they tasted divine. Meanwhile I boiled up some penne to slightly harder than al dente and put it in a ceramic baking dish. Then I mixed together some pasata, some chilli flakes in oil and a glug of red wine. I transferred some of the meat balls to the dish, poured over some of the suace, mixed and sprinkled over some grated red leicester and baked in a 180c oven for about 20 minutes - inspired by a "meatball marinara al forno" ready meal I'd seen in the supermarket. To be honest - and in retrospect - I think the "al forno" was a mistake. Everything came out a bit dry and the meatballs were definitely less succulent than straight out of the pan. The taste was spot on. Still, I give myself a B+ and I'll definitely try again. I'd imagine that the above quantities would probably feed at least 4 or 5 in normal circumstances. -- the problem with private jets is that I don't get airmiles
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