twenty-eight::newlywed::food

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food friday. i'm starting to really like the idea. this month of blogging has been amazing, for one, it's given me the opportunity to see what i really like blogging about. one of those things is food. big surprise, eh?

as i mentioned yesterday we had a dinner guest last night. a good friend whom we've not seen in ages. and the chance to sit down around the table and just talk and love and enjoy the friendship was such a blessing. i mentioned yesterday that one of my keys to weeknight entertaining is to keep it simple, but also, to make sure that we're eating food that we'd serve to others. (to clarify, i'd serve a good homemade soup with cheese and bread to a guest, so it doesn't have to be fancy, just tasty!)

i've had enormous success with many jamie oliver recipes over the years, but particularly with his book: jamie at home. an intended inspiration for kitchen gardening, i do find that the recipes are easy because they expect the seasons. and many of them are just right for an after work dinner - nice, good, wholesome food that doesn't take an enormous amount of time, but does show an effort.

quick sausage meatballs with a tomato and basil sauce, spaghetti and green beans

adapted from jamie at home

serves 4 

• olive oil
• 6-8 good-quality pork sausages
• 500g spaghetti
• sea salt
• 400 g green beans
• a block of Parmesan cheese, to serve
• a few sprigs of fresh rosemary, leave picked

for the tomato sauce
olive oil
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
• a small bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked, stalks finely chopped
• 2 x 400g tins of good-quality plum tomatoes
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• good-quality balsamic vinegar

jamie's original recipe can be found here. i've adapted it to make for less washing up, and because i couldn't see the need for the separate pans...i also substituted green beans, as peas aren't really available any more.

heat a large saucepan (i used our le creuset) and add a few tbsp of olive oil. squeeze sausage meatballs out of casings directly into the hot pan, you should get about three meatballs per sausage. fry, rolling them around the pan until browned.

in the meantime put a large pot of water onto boil for the pasta, cook pasta according to directions and your preferred taste. in the last 3 minutes, place green beans in a colander on top of your pasta water to cook/steam.

add tinned tomatoes to meatballs*, add crushed garlic, and chopped basil. use a pair of tongs to crush whole tomatoes, breaking up as you stir. allow to simmer for 10-15 min, reducing slightly. add rosemary and a splash of balsamic to finish the sauce. simmer for another minute or so. (i also add a tad of either honey, brown sugar or agave nectar to all my tomato sauces to cut the acidity).

sprinkle with remaining basil leaves and parmesan to serve.  delish!

*here is where i changed things up slightly

cleared table.