Best meatball recipe | Easy pasta ideas | Jamie Oliver (2024)

FAQs

Which pasta is most widely used with meatballs? ›

Orecchiette: Known as small ears, orecchiette pasta derives from Puglia. They are often served with oil-based sauces and especially popular with broccoli rabe and sausage. Spaghetti: The most famous long pasta shape, spaghetti mixes wonderfully with a variety of sauces. It's the classic shape to serve with meatballs.

I find that baking them and then finishing them in the sauce is the best method. Baking them ensures even cooking and browning as well as good flavor development. Throwing them into the sauce for a few minutes before serving flavors the sauce and keeps the meatballs moist and delicious.

Put a saucepan on a medium heat and add 1 tablespoon of olive oil and the onion, then cook for around 7 minutes, or until soft and lightly golden. Stir in the garlic and basil stalks for a few minutes, then add the fresh or tinned tomatoes and the vinegar.

To complete the meal, meatballs are sometimes served with a greens salad, lightly sautéed vegetables or even French fries, patatine fritte in Italian.

Polpette Al Forno

"Al forno" simply means "baked in an oven," and it's the most customary way you'll find meatballs and pasta in the same dish together in Italy.

Egg and breadcrumbs are common mix-ins to add moisture and tenderness. Another binder option that people swear by is a panade, which is fresh or dry breadcrumbs that have been soaked in milk. “The soaked breadcrumbs help keep the proteins in the meat from shrinking,” as food writer Tara Holland explained in the Kitchn.

After all of the Italian meatballs I've been making lately, I consider myself a meatball expert. A good rule of thumb is to bake meatballs for 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees fahrenheit.

While water and broth may keep the meatballs moist throughout the cooking process, milk's extra fat and luscious consistency add an unmatched level of complexity to any classic meatball recipe.

You can brown the uncooked meatballs in a sauté pan before adding them to the sauce. You can brown them in the oven. Or you can skip browning altogether and put the raw meatballs straight into the sauce to cook.

What happened to Jamie Oliver pasta sauce? ›

"The Jamie Oliver pasta sauces were selling around 5000 jars a week, but this was not enough for Woolworths to keep it in the range so it has been removed in favour of other products that may deliver larger volume sales.

Tossing in strips of basil, a sprig of thyme or some oregano can take your sauce to the next level. Although fresh herbs might pop a bit more, dried herbs and spices can work just as well. Sprinkling in some red pepper flakes, a pinch of parsley and a dash of salt and pepper can liven up your jarred pasta sauce.

Vinegar can add depth of flavour to soups, sauces, and stews. Especially great for tomato-based recipes, you can add a couple of tablespoons of vinegar towards the end of the cooking process to amplify the flavours of your other ingredients.

And that is Swedish meatballs with perfectly cooked elbow macaroni stirred into that heavenly cream sauce gravy. I know. It's mind-blowingly-fantastic. Now if elbow macaroni is not your thing, you can use ANY pasta to your liking – rotini, cavatelli, ditalini, penne – it is ALL GOOD.

The most popular dried pasta in Italy is Barilla, which has recently become more widely available in the United States. Like all Italian dried pasta, it is made under rigid Government controls from hard durum-wheat flour, called semola di grano duro in Italian and semolina in English.

However, combinations of pasta with meat date back at least to the Middle Ages, and pasta (including long pasta) dishes with tomato sauce and different kinds of meatballs are documented in certain Italian regions and in modern Italian cookbooks as maccheroni alle polpette (translated as 'spaghetti with meatballs') and ...

The Fusion of Flavors

The dish evolved as Italian immigrants combined their culinary traditions with American ingredients. They began serving spaghetti with larger American-style meatballs and tomato sauce, creating a satisfying meal.