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pasta, pesto, pecorino... meatballs!
Prep Time30 minutes
Cook Time15 minutes
Servings: 4
ingredients:
for the pasta:
  • 300 g pasta (cellentani)
  • 100-200 g green pesto
  • 1-2 tbsp olive oil (or cream)
  • salt
for the meatballs:
  • 400 g minced meat (beef only)
  • 1-2 clove of garlic (pressed)
  • 1 tsp dried parsley
  • 2 eggs
  • 100 g grated pecorino
  • 2 tbsp fine bread crumbs
  • some water
  • 2-3 spring onions
  • some olive oil
  • salt & pepper
how to:
  • Take a frying pan & oil the bottom.
  • Add pressed cloves of garlic & eggs to the minced meat.
  • Mix breadcrumbs & dried parsley w/ some water; the breadcrumbs will soak up the water: it shall become a creamy (not liquid!) mess - then add to the minced meat.
  • Chop the spring onions & add to the minced meat.
  • Grate the pecorino & add to the minced meat.
  • Add salt & pepper to taste.
  • Knead the minced meat until all is incorporated & form small meatballs.
  • Place the meatballs in the frying pan & fry at high temperature for some minutes; the bottoms of the meatballs should be crispy.
  • Try to turn the meatballs - attention: it tends to become a mess because the meatballs are rather soft.
  • In parallel: cook the cellentani in salted water as long as demanded (see package).
  • Drain & add green pesto immediately.
  • Add some olive oil or cream if it seems too dry!
  • Put pasta & meat balls on plates & serve immediately.
Notes
Cook Time: it’s about 15 min if you do meatballs & pasta in parallel. 15 min for the meatballs mean that they are well done & crispy on top & on bottom, but soft & crumbly inside.
Green pesto: I used a ready-to-use pesto w/ basil, pine nuts, pecorino, garlic... a rather intensive pesto from my trusted food store. It depends on you how much pesto to add to the pasta. For 300 g cellentani I recommend 100 g as minimum. If it’s too dry w/ the minimum just add some olive oil or cream. If you prefer more pesto flavour just add more pesto.
Minced meat: I used organic beef; therefore there was almost no water in the frying pan when frying. The meatballs are rather delicate & tend to break easily. If there is a lot of water it’ll become a real mess!
Garlic: I had rather big cloves of garlic on my kitchen shelf - so 1 clove was ok. If smaller use 2 of them.
Pecorino: I took pecorino because the pesto was also made w/ pecorino. In general you might also take grated parmesan.
Fill the plates w/ pasta & meat balls on top & serve immediately. You may mix pasta & meatballs, but then the meatballs will crumble (which isn’t bad at all for the pasta dish!).
You may store leftovers in the fridge for a day or so; reheat in the microwave. It’ll get a little dry so add some olive oil or cream when reheating.