The Ebb and Flow

my good friend Matt Devine asked me for the recipe for my spicy non-meatballs and rather than right it down on a scrap of paper, I thought I’d post it up here for posterity.

Disclaime first. Haute cuisine this isn’t. I’d say my diet is some way more stodgy than other people’s so don’t expect light and fluffy food that melts in your mouth. Do expect something that will leave you with a satisfied “I can’t eat another bite” feeling though.

So, ingredients. For the meatballs You will need,

1 sachet of sosmix or equivalent *
2 small chillies, de-seeded and finely chopped
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped (this can be amended to taste – I like a lot of garlic myself)
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon of mixed herbs
1 tablespoon of paprika
Salt and pepper to taste
300ml of water

For the sauce you will need,

1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 jar of passata (sieved tomatoes)
A dozen fresh basil leaves, washed and finely chopped
1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon of paprika
salt and pepper to taste

1. Mix all the dry ingredients for the meatballs in a bowl.

2. Add the water slowly and only add enough that the mix absorbs the water and has a thick dough-like consistency. Place the bowl of meatball mix in a fridge for at least 10 minutes.

3. Take the mix out of the fridge and take table spoon sized amounts and roll them into balls using your hands. You should get about a dozen or so meatballs just over a an inch wide.

4. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan to a medium heat (you’ll know it’s hot enough as if you add a small bit of onion, it’ll start to sizzle – if it’s starting to smoke, the oil’s too hot). Add the meatballs and fry them until the outsides are browned. be sure to keep them moving so that they don’t stick to the pan. Remove from the frying pan.

5. Add olive oil to a saucepan and heat to medium heat and fry the onions for the sauce.

6. When the onions are starting to colour, add the garlic.

7. Fry for a minute and then add the tomatoes, passata, balsamic vinegar, basil, paprika and seasoning. Stir the ingredients together and cook for 5 minutes.

8. add the meatballs for the mix, cover the saucepan and reduce the heat to just below medium.

9. Put a pan of cold, salted water on to boil. Add spaghetti when water is boiling along with a small amount of oil to keep the spaghetti from sticking.

10. Keep stirring the meatballs and sauce regularly. Warm some dishes for serving.

11. When the spaghetti is cooked, turn off heat on both the spaghetti pan and the meatball pan. Drain the spaghetti and serve into dishes. Pour the meatballs and sauce over spaghetti as required.

Voila! Rob Camp’s spicy non-meatball in tomato and basil sauce served with spaghetti. Enjoy.

* – There seems to have been an upset with regards to sosmix and all. As far as I can tell, the sosmix you need is Symington’s Sosmix. If you find a health food shop like Holland and Barrett, they should have the stuff. Burgermix works just as well if they don’t have sosmix.

I’ve never tried this recipe with anything like vegemince such as quorn mince and such like. The dried sosmix stuff works due to it’s sticky consistency. Let me know if the non-sticky mince stuff works as well.