Pigeon Cottage Kitchen

This is a very quick and easy way to make meatballs. You just use skinned sausages and bake them in the oven whilst you make the tomato and basil pasta sauce and boost that tomato flavour with the salsa topping. I use the fennel sausages from Humphrey’s in Bury St Edmunds but you can use a good butchers sausage and add your own fennel seeds and thyme. This will serve four but it’s easy enough to scale up or down for more people.

Ingredients – serves 4

• 6 fennel sausages or 6 butchers sausages and 2 tsps of fennel seeds and a tsp of fresh thyme
• 1 x 400g tin of Mutti tomatoes
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 tbsps red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp light olive oil
• 1 tbsps extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsps fresh basil
• 2 tbsps grated Parmesan
• 12 cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 500g orichette pasta (I used Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference). You can use other pasta types of course.

To make…

• Preheat the oven to 200C.
• Skin the sausages and break each one in two. With wet hands shape them into balls so that you end up with 12 meatballs. Using a 12 hole non-stick bun tin, place one meatball into each bun hole. If you can’t buy fennel sausages just use normal sausage meat and mix in the fennel seeds and fresh thyme. Bake in the middle shelf of the oven for 25 minutes until they are cooked through and golden. Depending on how much fat they render, turn them over once halfway through cooking.
• Now make the tomato sauce. Sauté the chopped onion in a large pan with the light olive oil for about 10 to 15 minutes until soft and golden. Add the vinegar, stir and then add the tinned tomatoes. Shred half the basil leaves and stir in. Leave to simmer gently for half an hour whilst the meatballs cook. Add a little water if it cooks down too quickly. Check for seasoning, add a pinch of salt if necessary.
• Make the salsa by chopping the cherry tomatoes into quarters, place them in a small bowl with all their juices, the other half of the shredded basil, extra-virgin olive oil and the remaining red wine vinegar. Mix thoroughly and add a pinch of salt and black pepper. Set aside.
• Cook the pasta according to the pack instructions. It normally takes about 12 minutes. Once cooked, use a slotted spoon to drain and transfer it into the tomato sauce. Loosen with a tablespoon or two of the pasta water.
• To serve, spoon the pasta onto a large serving plate or individual plates, top with the meatballs, the salsa and grated Parmesan.  

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