BAKING

BREAKING TRADITION TO SERVE FUSILLI WITH MEATBALLS!

2009/02/18 / 32 Comments
“Life is a combination of magic and pasta.”
Fellini

Fusilli+with+meat+ballsHappy after the success of my precious jar of Sun-dried tomatoes, it was but natural progression that I began to explore recipes that these delcious morsels figured in. I was looking to make a pasta for Noob Cook who is hosting #101 edition of Presto Pasta Nights, a weekly food blog event focused on cooking with pasta and all types of noodles. Sadly, I missed the 100th edition last week.Fusilli+with+meat+balls1
Enter The Pasta Bible … a book my elder sis had gifted me eons ago. It was well thumbed pages & is an interesting resource which offers you something for every season, veg or non-veg, light or luxuriously indulgent, cream or tomato based sauces, & I love sitting & poring over it. fusilli+with+meatballs+792Fusilli con salsa di Pomodori all’Aceto Balsamico… sounded exotic & delicious to me. Armed with my jar of sun dried tomatoes, I found this delicious recipe for fusilli which used tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes & also balsamic vinegar, another of my recent passions. That was the one I wanted to make. The original recipe is a vegetarian one, but to make it exciting for the kids, & a meal in a bowl, I added some chicken mince meatballs. So what if I was breaking away from trsitional spaghetti!fusilli+with+meatballs+766I developed the recipe for the meatballs from an earlier Chicken Reshmi Kebabs recipe which I use often, tweaking the seasonings from Indian to Italian. Adding yogurt made the meatballs soft & juicy. Following Vals More Than Burnt Toast for ages, have figured that thyme & chicken compliment each other, so some fresh thyme went in too.ALL+PICTURES7
FUSILLI WITH TOMATO & BALSAMIC VINEGAR SAUCE …with meatballs
Fusilli con salda di Pomodori all’Aceto Balsamico…con Polpettine (?)
Adapted from The Pasta Bible, pg 92
This is a modern CAL-ITAL recipe (Californian/Italian). The intense, sweet-sour flavour of balsamic vinegar gives a pleasant kick to the sauce. Serve the pasta with a salad & shaved Pecorino handed separately. I added chicken meatballs for variety. For a vegetarian version, omit the meatballs.
TOMATO & BALSAMIC VINEGAR SAUCE
Ingredients:
800gms tomatoes; peeled & chopped (or 2 X 400g/4oz cans chopped Italian plum tomatoes)
5-6 halves of drained sun dried tomatoes; snipped (original recipe had 2 pieces)
6 cloves of garlic; minced (original recipe had 2 cloves)
3 tbsps olive oil
3 tbsps balsamic vinegar
1 tsp granulated sugar
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
350-400gms fusilli
Method:
  • Put the tomatoes, sun dried tomatoes, garlic , olive oil & sugar in a pan. Add salt & pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, & then simmer for about 30 minutes until reduced. (I ran an immersion blender lightly through it to get a smoother sauce because of the kids, but you can leave it as it is if you like)
  • Add the balsamic vinegar to the sauce & stir to mix evenly, cook for 1-2 minutes, adjust seasonings if required. Meanwhile cook the pasta.
  • While the fusilli is cooking, fry the meatballs.ALL+PICTURES8
CHICKEN MEATBALLS
Ingredients:
500gms chicken mince; from thigh tenders
1 small onion; quartered
4 cloves garlic
Handful of thyme & oregano leaves (I used fresh; dried herbs will do too)
1 tbsp of Italian seasoning
1 heaped tbsp of thick yogurt
2 tbsp olive oil
Juice of 1/2 a lime
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp red chili flakes (optional) Fusilli+with+meat+balls4Method:
  • Put onion, garlic cloves, fresh herbs into processor & pulse for short intervals till chopped fine.
  • Add remaining ingredients, including mince & pulse till well mixed. Chill for at least 30 minutes.
  • Make tiny balls & shallow fry till golden brown all around.
  • When the last batch is done, turn the prepared sauce into the pan, add all the meatballs & simmer for 5 minutes.
  • Pour over the freshly cooked pasta & serve immediately.Fusilli+with+meat+balls3

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Posted by Deeba @ PAB

About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.

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32 Comments

  • Happy cook

    2009/02/18 at 9:33 am Reply

    I have the same book and i think that is one of the best pasta books i have.Hopping it is the same one we have
    Pasta with chicken meat balls looks so yumm.

  • arundati

    2009/02/18 at 9:58 am Reply

    looks awesome…. the pasta sauce is great….ofcourse mine will be minus the meat balls…. dont turn up your nose…. its the sauce that maketh the pasta!! fabulous pics….

  • Ricardo

    2009/02/18 at 12:42 pm Reply

    Darn, another one of your mouth watering dishes and now just to make me suffer one of my favourite meat balls…I like them so much so that I have 3 different dishes of them on my blog, but this of course is another different one and I am loving it…well done thx for sharing 🙂

  • Asha

    2009/02/18 at 2:10 pm Reply

    OH! Deeba, you are in Haryana? Didn’t know it, so exciting for me!! I LOVED LOVED cooking those Haryanvi yummies and to learn so much about the state as well. You are really lucky to taste all those any time you want there! I relied on cookbooks mainly! 🙂

    Now, this pasta and meatballs dish is my kids’ favorite. I usually make Spaghetti with meatballs. Loos fabulous, bet your kids enjoyed it too!

  • Purnima

    2009/02/18 at 2:10 pm Reply

    Deeba, I cd pop those deep fried mince as it is! 😀 Lovely pasta entry! Looks gorgeous n drool-extractor pics as hamesha! Wow..Tooo good!

  • Akal's Saappadu

    2009/02/18 at 3:04 pm Reply

    I don’t want to take my eyes off this dish, looks so yummy yummy!

    I’ve tried similar procedure with red wine and minced meat, as you said with sphagetti ( Sphagetti bolognaise) should try it with balsamic vinegar and fusilli, sounds interesting!

  • Poornima Nair

    2009/02/18 at 7:28 pm Reply

    Hey Deeba…that looks delicious…love pasta with meatballs…when I make them most of the meatballs dont make it to the final dish:)…

  • Manggy

    2009/02/18 at 8:49 pm Reply

    Looks awesome Deeba (and good on you for making those awesome sundried tomatoes)! They look maybe like full-fledged polpette 🙂

  • noobcook

    2009/02/19 at 2:37 am Reply

    I love this! You should make an extra bowl for the host, hehe just kidding. Thanks for joining PPN this week 😉

  • lisa (dandysugar)

    2009/02/19 at 3:20 am Reply

    Delicious Deeba! I love all the fresh flavors here. It’s just about dinner time for me and I wish I could just take a bite out of your photos! Mouthwatering!

  • noble pig

    2009/02/19 at 5:50 am Reply

    It looks amazing, wow…I love and adore meatballs. They are so hearty and amazing! This is a nice meal for a cold night Brrrrrrrr.

  • Tartelette

    2009/02/19 at 3:34 pm Reply

    Sounds absolutely delicious Deeba! Keep forgetting to tell you that I made your Reshmi Kebabs yesterday and OMG…I wanted to eat them all by myself!

  • Ruth Daniels

    2009/02/20 at 12:58 pm Reply

    I’m sorry you missed participating in the big PPN 100, but better late than never. This dish looks awesome! Thanks for joining in Presto Pasta Night – I always love it when you do.

  • kellypea

    2009/07/20 at 9:50 am Reply

    I'm starving right now, so of course this sounds and looks amazing. It's been a while since I made meatballs so maybe it's about time, right?

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