BREAKING TRADITION TO SERVE FUSILLI WITH MEATBALLS!

“Life is a combination of magic and pasta.”
Fellini

Happy 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.
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 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!I 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.
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.
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) Method:
  • 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.

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Posted by Deeba @ PAB

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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.

32 thoughts on “BREAKING TRADITION TO SERVE FUSILLI WITH MEATBALLS!”

  5. 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.

    Reply

  6. 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….

    Reply

  9. 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 🙂

    Reply

  11. 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!

    Reply

  12. 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!

    Reply

  13. 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!

    Reply

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

    Reply

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

    Reply

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

    Reply

  23. 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!

    Reply

  24. 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.

    Reply

  26. 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!

    Reply

  28. 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.

    Reply

  32. 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?

    Reply

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