Pasta sauce recipe. Ingredients: - Garlic (as little or as much as preferred) I usually use approximately 4 cloves. Garlic powder Brown onion x 1 Small red capsicum (bell pepper) x 1 Passata x 2 (I usually use two 700g bottles) Shiraz Thyme Basil Oregano Sage Fresh chilli or chilli flakes Brown sugar Olive oil Meatballs: - Beyond vegan mince (300g x 2) - Garlic powder - Onion powder - Thyme - Basil - Oregano - Grated parmesan - Egg replacer (one tablespoon) or one egg - Breadcrumbs (but only if you don’t want the meatballs too soft). - Salt 1. Set the pot to medium hot. Add a few tablespoons of olive oil. 2. Finely chop the garlic. 3. Finely chop the brown onion. 4. Finely chop a small red capsicum. Don’t use too much or it will make the sauce too sweet. 5. Once the olive oil has heated add the chopped garlic. 6. Once the garlic is lightly brown, add the finely chopped onion and stir. 7. Add the chopped capsicum. 8. Cook the onion, garlic, and capsicum until the onion and capsicum has softened (approx. 5 to 10min depending on how hot the pot is). 9. Add shiraz to the pot. I usually add quite a lot of red wine - about a half a glass to one glass of shiraz and I sometimes continue to add more as the sauce cooks because I like the sauce to have a strong wine flavour. Completely up to u how much wine you want to use. I think that either a cheap shiraz or Chianti works best. 10. Once the alcohol from the wine has cooked away (approx. 1 min), add both bottles of passata. In-order to use any remaining passata from the bottle, I add a small amount of water to each bottle of passata, slightly shake the bottle and pour the water into the pot then stir. 11. Add the herbs. I have never measured the amount of herbs I use – it changes every-time I make pasta sauce because I’ll just taste the sauce as it cooks and add more of whatever herb I think is needed. I usually prefer a more robust sauce; therefore, I usually add a lot more oregano, thyme and sage rather than a lot of basil, which I find makes it a lot sweeter. If I was to guess: thyme (1 to 2 tablespoons) / oregano (1 to 2 tablespoons) / basil (half a tablespoon). 12. Add the finely chopped thyme, oregano, basil. 13. Add a small amount of sage (appox three to four leaves). 14. Add a teaspoon of brown sugar. 15. Stir the sauce so that everything is combined. 16. Place the lid on the pot and keep the heat on low to medium for approx. twenty minutes. 17. While this is cooking, you can prepare the meatballs: - I usually use Beyond vegan mince. Place into a bowel. Add approx. two tablespoons of olive oil. Add appox a teaspoon of chopped thyme, basil, oregano. Add a tablespoon of garlic powder. Add a tablespoon of grated parmesan cheese. Add a teaspoon of salt. Add a teaspoon of chilli flakes. Add either one egg or one tablespoon of vegan egg replacer. - - Combine with your hands the mixture so that everything has distributed as best as possible. I then add a bit more olive oil, some more parmesan cheese, slightly more thyme and some more garlic powder (depending on how much you prefer). Combine all the ingredients into the mince again. if you think the mince mixture might be too soft then you can add a small amount of breadcrumbs to help toughen the mixture but it’s usually not necessarily, especially if you’re using vegan mince. Roll the meatballs and then add to a hot pan with olive oil. Cook the meatballs until they are a caramel brown around the surface. Don’t fully cook the meatballs. You only need to cook them enough so that they retain their shape while they are in the pasta sauce. 18. After the pasta sauce has been cooking for approx. twenty minutes, remove the lid, add all the meatballs to the sauce and gently stir so that the meatballs are submerged into the sauce. 19. Keep the lid half off and allow the sauce to simmer on a low heat for approximately forty minutes or until you think the sauce has the consistency that you prefer. I usually like the sauce to be quite thick, therefore, I allow the sauce to simmer for over an hour sometimes – it’s up to you. 20. Once the water has boiled, add some salt and then add your pasta of choice. 21. While the pasta is cooking in the boiling water, I take the pasta sauce off the heat to allow it to cool slightly. 22. While the pasta is cooking, I remove all of the meatballs from the sauce and I sprinkle some parmesan over the meatballs. 23. Finally add the pasta to the sauce and stir thoroughly.
