Langoustine and Tomato Tagliatelle!

The allotment is knocking out some great produce at the moment, especially tomatoes. So I thought I’d try a Marcus Wareing recipe. Langoustine from our local fish monger, well I say local, 7ish miles away, can you believe we live on the east coast of Durham and there’s one fish monger of I know. Anyway I digress, tomatoes, shallots, basil, chili and garlic from our allotment. Tell ya what, it was bluming gorgeous!

Chop a good handful of cherry (sized) tomatoes in half.

Chop up a couple cloves of garlic.

Chop a chilli into small pieces, leave in seeds if you want a bit of heat.

Chop a shallot up into small bits.

Finely slice 2 Basil leaves.

Ok, drop a couple of nests of Tagliatelle into boiling water. Fry the garlic and shallots in a frying pan with a splash olive oil. After a couple of minutes put in the tomatoes for a few minutes while you cook your Langoustines separately. Add the cooked Langoustine, then the basil and chilli. When Tagliatelle is al-dente, drain off water and add to the sauce. Mix in the pasta and serve.

 Top Meatballs…

When I was young I can always remember having Campbell’s meatballs when camping with my parents. I love Italian food so I thought I’d make my own, instead of buying a tin of the ‘mechanically extracted’ variety in a can.

Meatballs:

500g minced beef 

300g minced pork

One large egg

A good handful of breadcrumbs 

Ground pepper

Ground sea salt 

Glug of Olive Oil

Sauce:

500g Passata 

Two cloves of garlic  (finely chopped)

Handful of basil (finely chopped)

Method:

Put the minced beef, pork, egg and breadcrumbs in a big bowl and get your hands in and mix it all up. Get it squelching between your fingers! Season with the salt and pepper.  With your hands, make golf ball size meatballs and brown off in the oil in a frying pan.

As you can see there should be approx 28 balls. I only use about half of these and put the rest in the freezer for another day.  

Put the Passata in a pan and mix in the garlic and basil.  Add about 12-14 meatballs to the sauce and simmer for about 15-20 mins.  Season sauce to taste.

Serve with spaghetti or any carb of your liking.