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Food for family and friends I try not to watch daytime television, but the other day when at my mothers, “Lose

Women” was on in the background. Someone was discussing being invited to a

friend for dinner and was presented with a supermarket microwave meal

complete with microwavable dish.

This got me thinking about simple family meals that you could share with friends.

One meal that is a popular family meal and with little effort can be dressed up for

friends is Spaghetti and meatballs, you can easily convert this recipe if your

guests are gluten free, so no one has to miss out. This meal can be prepared and

cooked from scratch within 45 minutes.

This recipe serves 6-8 people and freezes well.

For the meatballs

1 kilo minced meat, you can chose beef, turkey, chicken, or lamb.

1 very large onion peeled

½ cup parsley

½ cup coriander

2 cloves of garlic

2 eggs beaten

¾ cup of bread crumbs, I use gluten free bread, but you can use any bread

crumbs, matzo meal, or cornflakes ground down.

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

½ teaspoon good quality salt

1 pinch cinnamon (it brings out the meat flavor)

½ teaspoon baking powder this helps keep the meatballs light and fluffy

For a quick and easy tomato sauce

1 onion diced

1 leek diced

3 cloves garlic

½ teaspoon oregano (dried works)


½ teaspoon chili flakes

1 large tin crushed tomatoes

¾ litre passata

½ cup wine

I carrot chopped

2 stalks celery chopped

½ tea spoon salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

½ desert spoon oil

1 stock cube (optional)


To make meat balls.

Place the meat in a bowl, add the eggs. salt , pepper & baking powder

Place the bread, parsley, onion, garlic, coriander in a food processor and pulse till

all very fine.

Add the bread and onion mix to the meat, mix well.

Rince your hands under cold water and make into meat balls (you need them to

be medium size)

Place the meat balls into the fridge to chill while you make the sauce.

To make the sauce

Heat the oil in a thick bottom pot

Add the onion leeks, carrots, garlic and celery stir and cook on a medium heat for

3-5 minutes or till onions are translucent

Add all the other ingredients, bring to the boil then turn heat down and simmer for

10 minutes, with a lid on the pot.


Check the flavour and adjust to taste.

(If you like a smooth sauce, you can now blend it with a hand blender.)

To cook the meat balls


Add the meatballs to the pot and stir gently into the sauce. Reduce the heat to a

simmer and cook for 30 minutes, stirring very gently a couple of times.

Cook your pasta

You will need 1 packet of your favorite spaghetti you can use regular, whole meal,

gluten free, and follow the instruction on packet to cook

To serve you can either mix you sauce and meat balls to the spaghetti and mix,

although personally I prefer to place the meatballs and sauce on top of the

spaghetti in the individual serving bowl.

To dress this up for guests, serve with a green salad, garlic bread, and a glass of

your favorite wine! Enjoy. 

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