Category: Pasta Dishes

Spaghetti Jollof

This is my son’s favourite way to eat Spaghetti

Recipe

Ingredients (serves 5-6)

  • 1 pack Spaghetti
  • 1.5 cups pre cooked pepper mix (tomatoes + jalapeños + scotch bonnet, ratio 5:1:1)
  • 1/4 Tomato Paste
  • 1 Cup Chicken or Beef Stock
  • 2 bay Leaf
  • 1 tbsp curry powder
  • 1/2 tsp dried thyme
  • Salt to taste
  • 2 or more Bouillon Cubes (These days I use MSG free seasonings )
  • 1/2 Cup Vegetable oil
  • 1 medium sized onions
  • *4 cloves of garlic chopped
  • *Chopped mixed herbs (optional, I used basil, rosemary and fresh bay leaf in place of the dried ones.)
Fresh herbs picked from the garden. Bay leaf (2 types), Basil, Rosemary, Garlic Chives

Procedure

  • In a clean pot, heat up vegetable oil, fry chopped onion and garlic with bay leaf till the onions are slightly tender.
  • Add the pepper mix , tomato paste, stock, curry, thyme, taste after adding stock before you add the bouillon cubes, and salt, so as not to over season or salt it.
  • Allow the pepper to fry a little then add 750 ml of water and put in the spaghetti
  • Cook till the spaghetti is al dente or soft enough to your taste.

Omolabake for #OunjeAladun1 Comment

Spaghetti and Meatballs 

I love my meatballs to be succulent and not tough and dry. This is my trusted go to recipe for meatballs. I could wake up in the middle of the night to make this.

I’m off carbs for a while so I could only relish the plate you see below with my eyes.

This is one of those posts where I just want to go straight to it and share the recipe.Its quite easy peasy.
Recipe.

Spaghetti

• 400grams Packet of Spaghetti
Meat balls

(Makes 16 )

•     350grams ground beef (You can make your own ground beef using this LINK )
•     2 or 3 slices of stale bread (for crumbs)
•     1 Egg
•     1/4 cup milk
•     1 small onion
•     2 Garlic
•     1 tsp Cayenne Pepper (Ground pepper/Ata gigun )
•     1 tsp Dried parsley leaves
•     1 tsp Dried Rosemary leaves
•     1/2 Mixed Herbs
•     1/4 tsp Salt
•     Seasoning to taste

Ingredients for meat balls

For Sauce

•     1 cup tomato puree
•     3 tbsp Tomato paste
•     1 tsp Parsley
•     1 tsp Rosemary
•     1 tsp Mixed Herbs
•     * Cayenne Pepper (optional)
•     Salt to taste
•     Seasoning to taste.

Procedure
–     In a blender or food processor , blitz the bread into crumbs. If using 3 slices , this would yield about  2 cups. Separate 1 cup.
–     Roughly chopped or blitz your onion and garlic.
–     Mix all the dried spices, seasoning and salt together, work it gently into the meat using your hands 

–     Add Egg and Milk mixing it in evenly
–     Add 1 cup of Breadcrumbs and mix till well incorporated
–     Sprinkle some of the left over Breadcrumbs on a flat surface. Scoop some of the mixture into your palms and roll into balls, place them on your flat surface sprinkled with breadcrumbs. When you are done you can sprinkle some more bread crumbs on the meat balls.

Bread crumbs, roughly blended onions, ground beef mixed with all ingredients , rounded balls on breadcrumbs covered surface. 

–      You can grill or bake the balls at this point. I added 2 tbsp of vegetable oil into a pan, and placed the balls into it to cook on both sides for less than  5 minutes. Take the meatballs out of the pan and services aside.

–      I used the pan I made the meatballs in for the tomato sauce. Add all your ingredients at once. Cook the Tomato sauce for at least 15 minutes before adding the meat balls. Then leave it to cook on low it till the tomato sauce is ready.

Meatballs in tomato sauce

For the Spaghetti

–   I took out all the meat balls from the tomato sauce, added a little water and cooked  the Spaghetti in the sauce till it was done.You can taste for salt and additional seasoning if necessary.
It’s quite easy to make it can bet you, while cooking I had time to feed two kids lunch, wash dishes and bath them in between. Give it a try.

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Tomato Beef Sauce

image

This accompanied a pasta meal but you can have it with crusty bread too.

Recipe
1/2 cup diced beef
3 tbsp Tomato Paste
3 tbsp Tomato Ketchup
1 Onion (grated)
2 Garlic (grated)
3 tomatoes sliced
2 green chill sliced
2 tsp chopped parsley
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dried sweet basil
1 tsp mixed herbs
1 tsp salt
3 cups Water

Add all in pot and place on low heat. Leave it to cook till the paste thickens. It might take a bit of time but the flavour would develop better that way.
P.S if you have a slow cooker. It would be perfect to cook this sauce

image
Spaghetti in Tomato Beef Sauce topped with grilled Sole fish with Potato Cream and Steamed Spinach.

Cooking time approx: 2hrs

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