Spicy meatball marinara bake
BY:
Pip
PUBLISHED:
UPDATED:
Tasty meatballs mixed with pizza sauce and pasta baked with a cheese topping…
15 mins
1 hour 40 mins
718 kcals
serves 2
SPICY MEATBALL MARINARA BAKE
I made this up with leftovers from my Pizza topped giant meatballs recipe (click here) and it was so tasty I thought it deserved it’s own slot!
It might look like a lot of work for one meal, but I often have a batch of the Best Ever Pizza Sauce (click here) made up, as my youngest daughter loves pizza, and it makes a great sauce for last minute meals, and if you’ve only fed 2 with the giant meatballs recipe, you could always freeze half the meatballs and save them for this!
Spicy meatball marinara bake
- Total Time: 1 hour 55 minutes
- Yield: 2 1x
Description
Tasty meatballs mixed with pizza sauce and pasta baked with a cheese topping
Syns: 1.5 per portion
Ingredients
Scale
- For the pizza sauce:
- 1 tin chopped tomatoes
- 50 g tomato puree
- 1/2 tsp herbes de provence
- 1/2 tbsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp onion granules
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 chopped carrot
- For the meatballs:
- 250 g lean pork or beef mince ((or a mixture of both))
- 2 tsp fresh (finely chopped rosemary)
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 25 g quinoa (cooked)
- salt and pepper
- 1 egg
- For the rest:
- 2 large field mushrooms (sliced)
- 1 large handful spinach (roughly chopped)
- 125 g wholewheat penne pasta
- 75 g Philadelphia Light
- 100 ml semi-skimmed milk
- 30 g grated cheddar
- 1 green chilli finely chopped
- 1 tsp dried chilli flakes
Instructions
- To make the sauce: Bring all of the sauce ingredients to a simmer in a saucepan, and simmer gently for 1 hour, stirring occasionally
- Whizz up thoroughly with a hand blender
- To make the meatballs:
- Combine the pork mince, quinoa, rosemary, salt and pepper, dijon mustard and egg. Shape into 12 meatballs
- Spray a baking tray with Frylight and place the meatballs on it. Spray them well with Fry Light and then bake for 15 minutes at 180c. While you are waiting, cook the penne.
- Stir together the drained, cooked pasta, the cooked meatballs and the pizza sauce, then add in the chopped spinach, green chilli and mushrooms.
- Spoon into a baking dish, and sprinkle over the dried chilli flakes
- Make a white sauce, by bringing the milk up to a simmer and stirring in the Philadelphia Light so that you have a thick sauce.
- Pour all over the top of the meatball bake, and then sprinkle the cheddar evenly over the top.
- Bake for approximately 25 minutes, until the cheesy top is golden brown
Notes
Some torn up fresh basil and grated parmesan is a lovely addition to garnish this! Goes very well with a rocket salad
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
