Kiddipedia
Serves 6
2 hours and 45 minutes
There were four people in our family but Mum always cooked enough food for ten, so there were always leftovers for my lunch box the next day. Mum would pack spaghetti and meatballs (she made small ones, polpette) into one of the containers in my lunch box with a plastic fork that I always brought back home so that she could wash it and use it again. My family was thrifty like that—nothing was ever wasted.
Ingredients
Pasta dough
1kg tipo ‘00’ flour
10 eggs
Sauce
2 onions, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely crushed
150ml olive oil
10 ripe red tomatoes, finely chopped and salted
1/4 bunch of basil, chopped
Meatballs
500g minced beef
500g minced pork
200g pancetta, finely minced
110g dry breadcrumbs
140g parmesan cheese, grated
1 pinch of dried chilli
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 bunch of flat leaf parsley, chopped
1/4 bunch of rosemary, finely chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
Method
For the pasta, mix the flour and eggs together until the dough is well-combined. Allow the dough to rest for at least 1 hour. Pass the dough through a pasta maker (starting at the thickest setting) until you roll down to the thinnest setting (approx. number 2). Once you have a thin pasta sheet, cut it into 20cm lengths. Flour well, place all the sheets on top of each other and roll into a cigar shape. Cut the pasta into desired width to achieve a hand cut spaghetti (or a rough-cut tagliatelle).
For the sauce, heat a large heavy-based pan. Add the olive oil and then add the onions and garlic. Allow to gently fry, then add the tomatoes and cook for about 20 minutes to reduce the excess water. Near the end of the cooking, add the basil, salt and pepper, to taste. Finish off with extra-virgin olive oil.
For the meatballs, mix the minces, breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese, eggs, herbs, chilli, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Roll into 1-inch balls. Heat a large frying pan over medium heat, and coat with oil. Brown the meatballs on all sides. Add the meatballs to the simmering pasta sauce and heat until fully cooked through (this takes about 10 minutes).
