Tagliatelle with a ragu of tiny meatballs

As Jamie says in his book Cook with Jamie, "this is a fantastic, classic, easy-pleaser of a dish." Mind you, by the time I had finished cooking the kitchen looked like a bomb had gone off - there were dishes, cooking utensils and various foodstuffs everywhere. Thanks goodness for dishwashers! Also, I decided to forgo making the pasta: I thought that might be just pushing things a bit too far. To complicate matters I also decided to make Garlic Toasts - from the book Everyday by Bill Granger.

Tagliatelle with a ragu of tiny meatballs
Serves 4-6

• 600g good-quality dried tagliatelle (tho' I used a 250g packet; realising too late that I hadn't bought enough but actually this was plenty)
• knob of butter
• handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese

for the meatballs:

• 450g good-quality coarse minced beef
• 1-2 dried chillies (I used minced chillies)
• pinch cinnamon
• pinch nutmeg (the recipe says 1/2 nutmeg grated - but where do you buy these?)
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 large egg
• handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for serving
• zest of 1 lemon

for the tomato sauce:

• olive oil
• 2-3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked, stalks chopped
• 1 fresh red chilli, pierced with the tip of a knife
• 2 x 400g tomatoes
• little swig of red wine vinegar
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Meatballs: mix and scrunch together all the meatball ingredients in your hands and shape into marble-sized balls. When rolling the meatballs, run your hands under cold water every now and then - it will help to make them dense and hold their shape better. Place them on a tray and put in the fridge while you make your tomato sauce.

Tomato sauce: Get a pan on the heat and add a glug of olive oil [what exactly is a glug?!] Gently fry the garlic, basil stalks [?!] and the whole chilli, then add the tomatoes and red wine vinegar. Season with salt and pepper then gently simmer for half an hour.

Putting it all together: heat up a little oil in a frying pan and throw in your meatballs. Cook until they've got a really good colour on them, then add them to your tomato sauce. Remove the chilli from the sauce and check for seasoning. Continue to simmer for 10 - 15mins [I probably didn't do this for as long as suggested - the meatballs could have been more cooked inside but no-one picked up on it!]. Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook according to the packet instructions. Drain the tagliatelle then toss it in the meatball sauce. Add the knob of butter, the Parmesan and tear over half the basil leaves [this would be interesting as none of the boys including DH are really into herbs!]. Toss around to coat the pasta. Add a little water to loosen the sauce if needed [it was needed - it was a bit thick and gluggy]. Serve on a big platter, scatter with the rest of the basil leaves [skipped this], grate over some Parmesan and serve as soon as possible.

The verdict: it went down well. As mentioned, the meatballs needed to be simmered for longer in the tomato sauce but otherwise it was fairly straightforward. How the kitchen ended up resembling a war zone is anyone's guess. Maybe I'm just a messy cook! Anyway, I served the pasta with Garlic Toasts.

Garlic Toasts (from Every Day - Bill Granger)
Serves 4

• 6 garlic cloves, peeled
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
• 2 Tbs butter
• 1 Tbs chopped fresh flat leaf (Italian) parsley
• 8 slices crostini or baguette

Preheat the oven to 180*c. Put the garlic and olive oil in a small roasting tin and season with salt and pepper. Cover with foil and roast for 20mins. Remove from the oven and leave to cool slightly, then put the garlic in a bowl and mash with a fork. Add the butter and parsley and mash together. Put the bread on a baking tray, spread with the garlic butter and bake for 5-10mins, or until crisp.

Verdict: I overcooked the garlic so it was partly crispy. Next time I won't have the oven as hot. Also I was making this for 5 people so I increased the number of baguette slices but didn't think of increasing the amount of garlic butter. Even so, they turned out well and went well with the pasta.

Other things we did today - checked out jones the grocer in Manuka and all the gourmet goodies they sell. So when a recipe calls for pomegranate molasses I'll know where to go! However we were more interested in getting a coffee but it seemed like everyone else in Canberra had that very same idea so we ventured a bit further down the road and stopped in at Verve cafe instead. I have arranged to have lunch in Manuka with a good friend when I get back from the Gold Coast and then we can shop to our hearts content without anyone following behind getting increasingly frustrated and bored!