My kids loved the book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  How they have enough to do a sequel to the movie I don’t know but the book was great.  Yesterday afternoon was definitely overcast and surprisingly cool and it was time for some comfort food.  We had some tortellini stuffed with cheese and prosciutto that I wanted to use and we needed to use some of the store bought tomato sauce we got for the homemade pizzas we made earlier in the week.  But I wanted to create something and it’s been a long time since I made any sort of meatballs.  Fortunately we had some ground beef on hand from a local farm.

This is a simple recipe which is perfect now the kids are back in school.  The summer just flew by.  Both are happy with the teachers they got and while they would prefer to still be on holiday it isn’t to tortuous heading off to school in the morning. 🙂

In a medium bowl I added the beef, one egg, 3 cloves of garlic finely chopped, fresh thyme from the garden and salt and pepper to taste.

As you hand mix this be careful not to manhandle it too much.  My mixture was quite moist so I added a bit of panko bread crumbs to bring it together better.

To really give it some flavour I drizzled some real balsamic vinegar onto the mixture and incorporated it.

Form into smallish balls keeping them somewhat uniform in size.  In a skillet with hot oil oil brown both sides.

Once both sides have been browned I finish them off in the oven at 400F/205C.  This will only take a few minutes.  Remove from the heat and set aside.  I add them to the sauce and pasta towards the end to make sure they are warm.  You don’t want to overcook them as they will dry out.  In the skillet I sauteed peppers, onions, and mushrooms, added the sauce and balsamic vinegar.  To finish I added some fresh basil.  Once the pasta is cooked I tossed it in the sauce and added the meatballs.

Grate some fresh parmesan over it and enjoy!  We had a lovely Merlot from Chile to pair with this dish.