Colm O'Gorman's Linguine Arrabiata with Italian Meatballs

Sort that cold-weather hankering for comfy food with this Linguine Arrabiata with Italian Meatballs

The freezing temperatures had me hankering for comfort food this week. When the weather gets cold I always want to load up with carbs, big bowls of stew or casseroles, or, most especially, pasta. For me, there is nothing better on a cold day than a big bowl of pasta smothered in a tasty tomato-based sauce, topped off with lots of parmesan cheese and served with home baked garlic bread.

This week I satisfied that longing with some beautiful meatballs and linguine in an arrabiata sauce. I use an arrabiata sauce for these meatballs because I love a mild chilli kick to this dish, but skip the chilli flakes if you prefer and you will essentially have a marinara sauce which will also work beautifully. You will get about fifteen meatballs from this recipe, and three per person is a good serving. 

Linguine Arrabiata with Italian Meatballs

If you have any leftovers, they reheat nicely and are perfect for lunch or supper on some toasted sourdough with tomatoes, lettuce, and lots of extra parmesan on top.

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 1 hours 20 mins

Cooking Time

 50 mins

Total Time

 2 hours 10 mins

Course

 Main

Cuisine

 Italian

Ingredients

• Meatballs

• 20g dried breadcrumbs

• 30ml milk

• 250g lean minced beef

• 250g minced pork

• 3 cloves garlic

• 20g flat leaf parsley

• 50g grated parmesan cheese

• 1 tsp flaky sea salt

• A good grind of black pepper

• 2 tbsp olive oil

• Arrabiata sauce

• 1 small onion

• 3 cloves garlic

• 60ml red wine

• 2 tins cherry tomatoes

• ½ tsp chilli flakes

• 1 tsp dried oregano

• 10g fresh basil

• Salt and ground black pepper to taste

• Garlic bread

• 2 part-cooked baguettes

• 6 cloves of garlic

• 140g softened butter

• 20g parmesan cheese

• To serve

• 100g dried linguine per person

• Freshly grated parmesan

• Fresh parsley and/or basil leaves

Method

1. Soak the breadcrumbs in the milk for five minutes to soften them. Peel and mince the garlic, wash and chop the flat leaf parsley. Pop the beef and pork into a large bowl and add the garlic, parsley, grated parmesan, salt and pepper. Squeeze the milk out of the breadcrumbs and add those to the bowl, before mixing everything together thoroughly. Use your hands to do this, ensuring that the beef and lamb are well combined, and all the other ingredients are mixed evenly through the meat.

2. Next, form the meat into small balls, each about 35g in weight. This will give you about fifteen meatballs, each roughly the size of a golf ball. Put the meatballs on a plate and pop them in the fridge for at least thirty minutes to ensure they firm up before you cook them.

3. While they are in the fridge, prep the ingredients for the sauce and make your garlic bread.

4. Peel and chop the onion for the sauce, and peel and grate the garlic. Wash and chop the basil. Set those aside now and prep the garlic bread.

5. Peel and mince at least six cloves of garlic, use more if you want extra garlicky flavour. Grate 20g of parmesan cheese. Combine the softened butter, minced garlic, and parmesan in a bowl. Cut strips crossways into the oven ready baguettes, about 2-3 cm apart but do not cut all the way though, leaving the base of the baguette intact. Now spread the butter in between the cuts, until you have used it all. To make sure that the garlic butter does not drain away when baking the bread, place each baguette into a boat of tinfoil which comes about halfway up the side of each. Set aside for now.

6. When your meatballs have firmed up nicely, remove them from the fridge. Heat three tablespoons of olive oil over a high heat in a heavy based oven proof frying pan. If you do not have an oven proof pan, use a regular one and transfer the meatballs to an oven proof dish before baking them. Reduce the heat to medium when the oil is hot and shimmering and add the meatballs to the pan. Fry the meatballs, turning them regularly, until browned all over. This will take about ten minutes. When the are browned all over, transfer them for the pan to a plate.

7. Preheat your oven to 160 Celsius.

8. If you used lean beef, there should not be much extra oil in the pan, so just add the chopped onions for the sauce to the same pan you used to cook the meatballs. You want to get all the lovely flavour and juices from the meat, so do not wipe it out before adding the onions. If you used a higher fat content beef, you may want to remove a little of the fat before cooking the onions. Fry the onions over a medium heat until they are soft and translucent, about three to four minutes will do it. Add the minced garlic and fry for one more minute.

9. Now add the chopped tomatoes, dried oregano, chopped basil, and the chilli flakes. Season with a little salt and pepper and bring everything to a soft boil. Simmer for five minutes before adding the meatballs back to pan. Stir gently to coat the meatballs, pop on the lid, and transfer the pan to the oven. Bake the meatballs for twenty to twenty-five minutes.

10. When the meatballs have about five minutes to go, increase the heat to 200 Celsius and pop the garlic bread into the oven. Time now to cook the pasta. Add 100g of dried linguine, or spaghetti if you prefer, to a large pan of boiling salted water. Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packet, about ten minutes should give you linguine with a little bite to it which is perfect. When it is cooked, drain the pasta, return it to the pan and drizzle it with a little extra virgin olive oil.

11. Remove the meatballs from the oven and add little of the arrabiata sauce to the cooked linguine, enough to lightly coat the pasta.

12. Serve the pasta in warm dishes, with three to four meatballs per person and more of the sauce spooned over the top. Finish with a generous amount of freshly grated parmesan and some chopped flat leaf parsley or basil.

13. By now, your garlic bread should be perfectly cooked, so remove that from the oven. Serve the pasta immediately with the crusty garlic bread on the side.