One pot chicken meatballs and pasta

At a glance

Preparation time: 35 minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 1 onion*
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic or 2 garlic cloves
• 1 carrot
• 4 celery sticks
• 500g lean chicken mince*
• 1 egg
• ½ cup breadcrumbs
• 2 tablespoons oil*
• 1 teaspoon ground paprika
• 1 ½ cups canned or bottled tomato puree* (no added salt if available)
• ¾ cup water*
• 1 teaspoon dried Italian herbs
• 1 cup frozen spinach
• 300g pasta (your choice of pasta)*
• Pepper, to taste

Steps

1. Dice the onion by removing outer skins and chop into small pieces. Place in a small bowl for later.
2. If using fresh garlic, remove outer skin and chop cloves into very small pieces. Add to bowl with the onion.
3. Chop the carrot and celery into small pieces. Place in bowl with the onion and garlic.
4. To make the chicken meatballs: add chicken mince, egg and breadcrumbs to a large mixing bowl and use a wooden spoon or clean hands to combine. Lightly oil your hands and then using your hands, roll tablespoon amounts of the mixture into small balls (makes around 12 balls). Set the meatballs aside on a plate.
5. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil on a frying pan. Wait until the oil sizzles a little then add the meatballs and cook for 3-4 minutes, turning with tongs or a fork until browned (note: you may need to do this in batches depending on the size of your frying pan). Remove the meatballs from the pan and set aside on a clean plate.
6. In the same frying pan, add another tablespoon of oil. Wait until the oil sizzles a little then add the onion, garlic, carrot, celery and paprika, stirring with the wooden spoon to mix. Cook for 5 minutes until softened and lightly browned.
7. To the same frypan add in the tomato puree, ¾ cup water, dried Italian herbs and spinach. Use the wooden spoon to break up the spinach as it thaws and continue to cook for approximately 5 minutes.
8. Add the browned meatballs back to the pan with the tomato mix and cook for 10 minutes, or until the meatballs are cooked through, stirring occasionally.
9. While the tomatoes and meatballs continue to cook, cook the pasta according to packet instructions. Drain using a colander if available or pour water from the saucepan. Add cooked pasta to the frypan with the meatballs and mix to combine.
10. Distribute pasta and meatballs between bowls and sprinkle with pepper to your preferred taste.

*Tips

• Use red or brown onion.
• Option to purchase store-bought premade meatballs instead of making your own meatballs. Simply skip step 4.
• Option to replace chicken mince with beef or pork mince.
• Use any of these cooking oils: olive oil, canola oil, vegetable oil.
• Use any tomato puree e.g. passata sauce, canned crushed tomatoes, canned diced tomatoes, canned cherry tomatoes.
• Option to replace the water with ¾ cup reduced salt chicken stock for additional flavour.
• Option to serve with rice instead of pasta.
• Option to serve with grated cheese.
• If you’d like some spice, add a sprinkle of dried chilli flakes when you add the tomato puree.

Watch how to make it

videocam 1:09