Family Food - Sauce for Meatballs

There's really no excuse for this title not being "Family Food - Homemade Meatballs and Sauce", but let's face it, I'm a lazy bint. I mean to say, I'm SUPER BUSY. And a bit lazy. And the meatballs you can buy ready made are fantabulous too. Yes, they have salt and other additives in them, but you can't have it all. They might well still be repeating on me 24 hours later - again, you can't have it all. Buuuurp.

The Bairn is going through an horrendously fussy period just now - teething, as well as run down after the usual marathon of nursery-donated bugs - so I was delighted when he had enthusiastic second helpings of this meal! I felt compelled to share my genius with you all. Also, my New Year's Resolution is to blog AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK. You heard it here first! On New Year's Day, the original Resolution was to blog twice a week, but (as I have admittedly fallen at the first hurdle) I had to give this careful reconsideration.

So... The recipe. It's got loads of veg in it. For wee ones, teethers, and fussy tikes, you could blitz it all (without the meatballs) in a food processor and serve it with orzo - that really tiny rice-like pasta. Or rice. Or couscous.

Ingredients

One onion, finely chopped

One large clove of garlic, crushed

A medium carrot, grated

Tomato purée (optionally - some are salted) - dessert spoon

A red pepper, chopped small

Spinach

1/2 pint of beef stock (baby stock for little ones)

Seasonings - salt, pepper, herbs

1. Fry onion in a little olive oil until transparent.
2. Add carrot, red pepper, tomato puree and garlic, stir and cook for further few minutes.
3. After another few minutes, add in tomatoes and stock.
4. At this point - if serving with meatballs, brown them about 5 minutes on each side in olive oil, then transfer into the sauce.
5. Simmer for 30 minutes, lid on the pan.
6. 10 minutes from the end, add your generous handful of spinach - season to taste.

I chopped up the meatball for The Bairn, and mixed it all up with small pasta shapes - he will ONLY eat with a spoon at the moment, with which he has pebble-dashed the entire back wall of our dining room in a mixture of Weetabix, porridge, ketchup and yoghurt hues. But more on interior design in future blogs.

The next day, I served the leftovers with pasta, sweetcorn and grated cheese - second helpings again! Go, The Bairn!

Posted with Blogsy