Spaghetti with chorizo meatballs and homemade tomato sauce
Author: 
Recipe type: Entree
Cuisine: Italian
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 2 hungry people
 
This posh version of a nursery food classic uses rich homemade tomato sauce and mini chorizo meatballs for a luxurious bowl of comfort food.
Ingredients
  • about 4 cups of skinned, cored and shopped tomatoes (more if you want to bottle some for later)
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • pack of Unearthed 12 mini chorizo  meatballs (or make your own)
  • spaghetti - enough for 2 people
  • a handful of fresh basil leaves
  • salt and black pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Skin the tomatoes by immersing them in boiling water till they split (about 30 seconds) and then pulling the skin off.  Remove the core of each tomato, scoop out most of the pips (no need to get fanatical about it though!) and chop roughly. Discard any excess juice (draining the pulp in a sieve is a good way of removing excess juice).
  2. Place all the tomato pulp the sugar into a large stock pot and bring to the boil over medium heat. Once it is boiling, turn the heat down to a simmer, cover loosely with a lid and simmer for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally, until the volume is a half to a third of what it was originally and large bubbles (rather like a lava lake) rise occasionally to the surface. The longer you let it simmer, the thicker and more concentrated it will get - use your discretion.
  3. In the meantime, cook the spaghetti in plenty of salted water according to the package instructions.
  4. In a clean frying pan with no added oil, fry the meatballs over medium heat until lightly browned and cooked through (should take about 8 minutes).  Stir as much of the tomato sauce as you need into the pan with the meatballs and stir to coat them.
  5. Drain the pasta and dish up into bowls, topping each bowl with the tomato and meatball mix.  Garnish with chopped basil leaves and serve immediately.
  6. Leftover sauce will keep in an airtight contained in the fridge If there is sauce left over and you want to keep it for longer, you can either freeze it in a Ziploc plastic bag, or bottle it.
  7. To bottle, reheat the tomato sauce till it bubbles. Sterilise enough bottles (I re-use jam and sauce jars) to hold the sauce you have left over by washing them in hot soapy water and placing them in a cold over and turning it up to 160C.  When the oven reaches the correct temperature, your jars will be ready. Boil the lids for 5 minutes.
  8. Carefully spoon the sauce into the hot jar, leaving at least 1cm of headroom at the top.  Tap to remove any air bubbles, then screw the lid on tightly. Depending how much sauce you have left, repeat till all the sauce is bottled.
  9. Bring a very large stock pot (or a canner) of water to boil with a small metal trivet in the bottom of the pot. When all the jars are filled and sealed, carefully lower them upright into the boiling water (I used braai/barbecue tongs as the bottles were still very hot). Once all the jars are in, there should be at least 2.5cm of water over the top of the lids.
  10. Boil for 20 minutes then carefully remove the jars and allow to cool.  After 24 hours, check the seals – if the centre of the lid can “pop” up and down when pressed, the the jars have NOT sealed properly and should be re-boiled.
  11. Store in a cool, dark place for up to a year.
Recipe by Cooksister | Food, Travel, Photography at https://www.cooksister.com/2013/10/posh-spaghetti-chorizo-meatballs.html