Jamie Oliver’s meatballs and pasta – Ministry of Food

hi guys welcome to Ministry of food
we’re gonna make some beautiful
meatballs of spaghetti and tomato sauce
so whether you’re passing on at home or
passing it on and the workplace I’m
going to give you a clear demonstration
of how to do it and basically make sure
you’re going to make a brilliant job of
it so we’ve got lovely ingredients here
we’ve got some minced beef we got some
Jacob’s cream crackers I’ll explain
those later an egg some rosemary some
mustard some Oregon Oh spaghetti but you
can use any pasta you like really a
little Parmesan cheese literally that
much a couple of tins of tomatoes some
garlic onion and chilli and some basil
so real time let’s get our minced meat
into a bowl here I’m going to put in
this bowl about a tablespoon of oregano
you want about a teaspoon of mustard
that’s going to give you good flavor
then we’re going to crack one egg into
your burger and then some rosemary
rosemary ‘the best friends you can get
this just about everywhere you can get
it in the supermarkets you’ll find this
growing everywhere as well if you
haven’t got it in your own garden it’s
quite good to plant some because it just
goes on and on for ages when you slice
it put your hand on the knife so it’s
safe and just rock it up and down like
this so that goes straight in there
I need bread crumbs in this recipe to
make it stick together bind together so
to make it work every time literally a
half a pack of these crackers put it
into a tea towel like this just pull in
the teeth out like that so it looks like
a little parcel and then just bash the
hell out of it
let’s have a little look in here okay
yeah so basically you got half decent
breadcrumbs there and they’ll work every
single time so get that in with your
meatballs now one is that you can use a
spoon if you want to get things going
and once you feel that you’ve got it
mixed up as much as possible then you
can use your hands because you’ve got to
make them into balls anyway now the
question is how do you like your balls
you can have big balls we can have
medium sized balls or you can have
little balls personally I can’t enjoy
little balls
what’s nice about this is when you learn
this one recipe or technique clean hands
by the way just scrunch it up literally
you know scrunch it between your fingers
and that’s perfect for really getting
the flavors mixed so I’m going to make
sort of squash ball sized meatballs you
just literally roll them like that as
you’re putting your hands together sort
of put pressure on it all right to sort
of pack it all in and then take the
pressure off as you roll in and that’s
what you end up with okay that little
baby there so when you’re making your
balls if you want them to be nice and
sort of like shiny just put a little bit
of water on your hand and the water just
sort of makes it all nearly chop my
balls the water makes them nice and sort
of smooth like that a couple of minutes
you get all these done
I think what’s quite important is you
want to make sure your balls are all the
same size because if some are big and
some are small obviously they’re going
to cook at different times are they
so look there’s all the balls done just
going to wash my hands okay let’s get
cooking so little bit of olive oil into
a pan just about couple of tablespoons
and then I’m gonna get all these balls
and just pile them in they’ll start
cooking straightaway I’m gonna turn the
board over right so what you want to do
is you want to cook these for about
eight minutes right you want to get
color on the outside you don’t want to
be pale and anemic looking you want to
make golden and crisp okay you can get
it on a medium high heat spaghetti is
gonna go straight in this takes 12
minutes these will be cooked by them so
we’re gonna go in and I got some salt in
there about a teaspoon of salt to a
liter of water you’re not gonna eat that
because obviously you pour the water
away but what you will do is season the
pasta if you do not put salt in there
the pasta will taste like thin air okay
you’ve got some color on these balls and
that’s great but what I want to show you
is how I make a one-minute amount of
sauce delicious two tins of tomato and
then you’ve got your basil got a bunch
of basil here so while this is cooking
you know we can pick these lovely little
center bits of the basil out and put
them to one side and then literally all
the leaves you can put together like
that
now these stalks here are not so good so
we can rip those off and shut those away
but these stalks here are soft and
delicious so we’re going to chop these
up like this so that’s going to be a big
flavor in your sauce then you want a
couple of cloves of garlic now these
balls here have a look at them now you
got nice color there that’s what we want
we’re going to put them onto a plate
right put the pan back on the heat and
they’re just going to sit here for a
second while you make this really quick
sauce go to the end of the garlic take
the end off take the garlic away and
often the skin comes off and if in doubt
put just your hand
like that but garlic some people ate it
but garlic such a wonderful flavor and
it makes everything kind of come
together so get that paper off and then
make a point of slicing the garlic up so
take your own time and then Chile Chile
is obviously an acquired taste I love it
but Chilean Tomatoes brilliant again
just slice it up like this
put as much or as little as you want in
it but it’s nice to have meatballs with
a bit of a kick on the tomato sauce
that’s for sure so in this pan it’s
already on the heat touch of olive oil
if you angle the pan you can make that
little bit of olive oil go to one side
right and then in that one side put the
chilli and garlic you just want to wait
until it gets the smallest bit of colour
okay use a spoon to mix it around if you
want and why don’t you start to get a
tiny bit of color starting on that pan
you’ve got to be quick and immediate now
so we go in with the basil right and in
with the tins of tomato as soon as this
sauce comes to the boil with the help of
a little pinch of salt this sort is done
now at this point let’s put the
meatballs back in if you want to check
if these balls are cooked get in there
and open it and that is brown all the
way through so that’s cooked straight
back in I’m happy with that
drain the pasta immediately pick the
colander up and sort of try and save
that water in a little colander you you
might need that you might not and then
we dump the pasta in like that now at
this point you can use your tongs or a
spoon bit careful don’t slap it all over
the place you know you’ve got beautiful
meatballs you don’t worry you can turn
the heat off if you want and just move
it around all I’m gonna do is drag that
pasta
into here there you go
fantastic you could serve four to six
people with this depending on how much
they like don’t forget any of that
lovely sauce sprinkle the little basil
leaves that you did a little bit of
parmesan and absolutely a few in Italy
give it a little drizzle of extra virgin
olive oil right at the end you know that
is a wonderful dish I would love that if
I went around someone’s house I’ll be
well chuffed with that good luck take
care and don’t forget to pass it on nice
one
you