Spaghetti with Sausage Meatballs

It’s that time of year again for students, everything is up in the air. Either you are manically cramming as much information into your overstuffed brains as is humanly possible, and if this is the case you are probably eating week-old Chinese takeaway, or you are finally finished with uni work and are celebrating by spending at least two weeks in an alcohol induced coma. In any case cooking is not at the top of most people’s lists of priorities.

I have spent the last week trying to use up every scrap of leftover food in my house in preparation for the big migration south. Unluckily I do not have the pleasure of moving my copious possessions into my new house before summer meaning I will have to sit through the usual farce of will they, won’t they, fit in the car, that is. This year a hugely complex system of pulleys and levers was required, whose construction was, of course,  accompanied by the obligatory muttering of French swearwords. Anyway, my point is, no room for food, and so, being opposed to waste, I have cookedeverything I can find.  One of the less disastrous recipes is this sausage spaghetti. It is perfect when money is running low and alcohol costs are running high but you need a night off the ready meals and macdonalds. This is also a great dish for using up leftovers, throw in any old bits of veg you have lying around, I usually throw in roasted courgette but aubergine, peppers, old tomatoes or onion would all work really well roasted and thrown in at the last minute.

Spaghetti with Sausage Meatballs
Serves 1

• 2 butchers sausages
• A handful of spaghetti
• Half a tin of chopped tomatoes
• Half a small onion
• One large clove of garlic
• Optional decoration: Parmesan and Fresh Basil

How to Make it…

• Start with the sauce, this is the basic tomato sauce I always use. Dice the onion and soften it up in the pan with some olive oil. When it’s nearly ready add the finely chopped garlic (I don’t have a garlic crusher but if you do then use it, it is much quicker!).
• Once the onions and garlic are done add half a tin of tomatoes, some salt and pepper and if you don’t have any fresh basil you can add some dried herbs at this point. Then leave the sauce to simmer.
• Meanwhile cook your spaghetti.
• Now cut along the length of your sausages with a knife and take the meat out of the skins. Roll the meat into little balls, I think that they are best when they are nice and small as they cook really fast and then you can get a little bit with each mouthful. Put the meatballs in pan with a tiny bit of oil and leave to fry.
• If your safe looks a bit thick by now you can add a dash of water. Normally I would just serve my sauce like this but with spaghetti it is really nice to have a smooth silky sauce that coats the pasta. This is why I blitz it up with a blender or a hand blender at this point.
• If you don’t have a very advanced kitchen you might think having a hand blender is completely frivolous, I can assure it is not. They can be bought for under £15 from most supermarkets and they are so useful!
• Now add your sauce to the meatballs (or visa versa if the pan is too small!)and add the spaghetti, no need to use a colander, I just use tongs to save on washing up. It doesn’t matter if some of the pasta water goes into the sauce, this just makes it more silky and delicious. If you are using roasted veggies put them in now too.
• Use the tongs to stir everything together and serve with fresh basil (if you have it, most people won’t I know!) and grated parmesan.

Washing up rating * I used two pans, a frying pan, a blender, kitchen tongs, a wooden spoon, a knife, a cheese grater and of course the bowl and fork to eat it out of.

Cost rating *** I used: 1/3 of a pack of sausages costing £2.50, half a tin of tomatoes costing 62p, half an onion costing 21p, 1/5 of a pack of spaghetti costing 95p, 1/3 of a pack of basil costing 80p, a few grates of parmesan costing £2.60 and a few bits and bobs from the cupboard.In total this dish costs roughly £1.90