Goodness me. So filling. So unanticipatedly filling that I could only eat half! :( A bit of background, this is the typical 'style' that Americans have their 'pasta' as. Spaghetti, meatballs and sauce. I have had an american -cook- me said meatballs and through no fault of his own, I found it absolutely ... unappetising. The meatballs were just beef, or it tasted like, moulded into fist size balls that sit on your plate and were covered in tomato paste, water and salt. Ugh. So, with -that- in mind, I made the meatballs much ...smaller. Much, much smaller. And it turned out rather lovely! For this you will need;
500g chicken mince
1-2 spring onions, finely (very very finely) diced
1/4 of a green capsicum (pepper) finely diced. Very finely.
3 large cloves of garlic
A handful of tube spaghetti (or normal spaghetti) per person.
1-2 Tbsp of butter
1 1/2 cups of plain flour
4 tbsp of olive oil
6 tsp of powdered chicken stock
2 eggs
1-2 cups of breadcrumbs
2 tsp of Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp oregano
3 tsp parsley
1 cup of grated cheese (cheddar)
This is sliiiightly complicated because I've listed the full amounts of everything, rather than piecemealing it out into separate parts. I hope this doesn't confuse people!
The spring onion, capsicum, cheese, worchestershire sauce, 2 tsp of chicken stock, the 500g chicken mince, 2 cloves of garlic; finely diced, thyme, oregano, 1 tsp of parsley, the breadcrumbs and 2 eggs allllll go into the same bowl, and stirred through thoroughly, so that it is evenly mixed, stirred through thoroughly. Use a dessert spoon to do the stirring if you like, makes it easier to do other things.
Mmm, delicious looking right?
Fill a pot with water, add oil and 3 tsp of chicken stock to the water. Turn on, so that it can start to boil. Get your chicken mix, and the dessert spoon, using -half- of the dessert spoon as serving size portions. You want these to be small, so that one and nearly two would fit on the dessert spoon when you turn them over. Roll the mix into small balls, and put directly onto the hot frying pan.
While they are cooking on one side, your water should be starting to boil, turn the heat down slightly, and put the pasta in. Turn the meatballs over, remembering to stir your pasta so that it doesn't stick -- protip; to lessen chance of pasta sticking to the bottom of the pot, keep the water boiling. Bubbles from the bottom means the pasta isn't sitting there long enough -to- stick. But, do try to stir your pasta, keeps it cooking evenly.
Put the butter in another pot, and 1 clove of garlic, diced and sliced very finely. Melt the butter, and fry up the garlic in the butter. Stir so that nothing burns -- keep the heat low! -- before adding the flour. Stir. Thoroughly. You want to lightly cook the flour into a crumbly sort of dough before you add the milk, one little bit at a time. One dollop and little dribbly bit, stirring all the while. Once you have around half the milk in, add 1 tsp of chicken stock (I know! Used a LOT) and 2 tsp of parsley.
...Now, you'll want to rope in some help for this, just tell them to keep stirring the sauce, paying attention to the corners of the pot (yes it has corners, that's where the side meets the bottom. Flour has an unpleasant tendancy to hide there and burn) while you pull the meatballs off of the heat and onto a clean plate. If you haven't a frying pan large enough (like I didn't) then put the rest of the mix into little balls and on to cook. The sauce should be really rather thick by now.
Easiest way I found, to turn the little balls of chicken deliciousness, I used the dessert spoon, and a pair of tongs -- though another spoon, fork or if you're exceptionally skilled, pair of chop sticks would do just as well. Strain the pasta, serve it onto plates, add an appropriate number of meatballs (five to seven) and pour the sauce over the top.
It is EXTREMELY filling, so you probably wish to serve up less than I suggested, because I could only eat half of my plate. SO MUCH CHICKEN flavour though, goodness. As you are cooking the pasta in the equivalent of liquid chicken stock, and chicken and more chicken and ... so good.
If you do not want the pasta etc part (it is very difficult to co-ordinate it all on your own and not burn anything or overcook or fubar) then the meatballs do well enough on their own. They would do wonderfully for finger food for the kids, stick a toothpick in each, some tomato sauce and it is gold.
Deliciousness Delivered. ...So. Full.
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