I used to work in a  restaurant last year, that claimed to be making Italian food. What I thought about it was best illustrated by a couple of Italians storming out of there, having been served lasagne…The only two good things I learned in that place, that shares the name with my current boss, was the idea of sweating off the vegetables before blitzing them into a soup, which improves the flavour dramatically ( works with cup mushrooms wonderfully as well) and- Massimo’s meatballs.

I walked into the kitchen at work this morning when Tom was chopping a large amount of mint and I knew exactly what I felt like cooking tonight.

For the meatballs I use the ground beef, preferably not the lean one, it has to be nice and moist. I add a bread roll soaked in water and milk, a generous handful of grated parmesan, an egg, chopped shallot for the bite and 2 garlic cloves. Then comes the mint. Some of my Italian friends reckon it’s got to be parsley, I stick with the mint, ever since I tasted Massimo’s polpettine. It needs to be worked well with your  hands, seasoned generously with salt and pepper and then shaped into small meatballs. I toss them in flour and boil for about 10 minutes in a beef stock, just enough to nearly cover them. That floury stock is later used for the sauce, as all the goodness stays in it.

The tomato sauce is best kept simple, so quickly fried shallot and celery, a couple of cup mushrooms, a can of chopped tomatoes or passata, some fresh herbs, some port or sweet wine, if there happens to be some open(which is not too often as it gets drunk right away 🙂 ), I like it quite sweet. In go the meatballs and all there is left to do is  cooking the spaghetti, setting the table and opening some good red wine.

Serve with extra parmesan and black pepper.