I am not that great at writing descriptions for food as my main hobby is just to eat them and feel the awesome flavour with my taste buds and then appreciate the best ones by going for a second helping. However, after I have tasted so much wonderful dishes, especially those cooked by my better half, I feel compelled to add some narration in order to somehow justify his exemplary culinary skills.
Meatballs are my all time favourite whether it is baked or curried. For a long time, I was yearning to taste meatballs and so, I placed the request to my better half. Finally, here it is in the form of pasta, which is always welcomed with lots of cheers by my household, especially when it has cheese toppings. Yummy!!! Hope you enjoy it too!
Ingredients:
- 500 gms pasta
- 600 gms of bottled pasta sauce with garlic and herb flavour
- 500 gms frozen meatballs*
- 1 sweet pepper cut into small cubes*
- 250 gms sliced mushroom (optional)
- 2 strands of celery (optional)
- 1 carrot sliced or cubes (optional)
- 1 medium diced onion
- 1 tsp crushed ginger
- 1 tsp crushed garlic
- 400 gms grated mozzarella cheese
- 1 tsp red chilly powder (or Kashmiri chilly powder or paprika)
- 1 tsp red chilly flakes (optional)
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 3 tbsp grapeseed oil (or any cooking oil)
- salt to taste
Direction to cook:
- Bake meatballs at 300 degrees for 30 minutes and keep aside*;
- In a cooking pot, add pasta and salt to boiling water and boil the pasta till it is cooked. Once cooked, drain the water in a colander(strainer) and run cold water over it. Now add 2 tbsp olive oil, mix well and keep aside*;
- Heat grapeseed oil in a saucepan and add onion. Once the onions have been sautéed for 5 minutes add ginger and stir. After one minute add garlic and stir;
- Now add the red chilly flakes and stir all the ingredients again;
- Add celery and sauté it for one minute;
- Add peppers, carrots, and mushrooms at an interval of 1-2 minutes and continue stirring so that all them get mixed well;
- Now add red chilly powder and mix well;
- Pour 1/2 bottle of pasta sauce and stir well;
- After one minute add 200 gm grated cheese and stir;
- Add pasta, meatballs and remaining sauce and stir well;
- Add salt as desired along with 2 tbsp olive oil and the remaining grated cheese. Mix well and let the mixture warm up well;
- Remove from fire and serve hot.
*Tips:
1) You can use fresh or frozen meatball. I used frozen meatball. If you use fresh meatball then bake it for 45 minutes or till it is fully cooked. Also, you can use any meatball i.e. chicken, beef, etc. I used beef meatballs for this recipe.
2) You can use any colour sweet pepper. I used red pepper for this recipe.
2) I add oil to the cooled pasta and mix it well so that the pasta does not stick to each other.
Lobo Universe 