Serves 4

Ingredients:

If you have read The Bank Cook, you will remember few items that I recommend to always have in the house. Things like onions, garlic, salt, pepper and oil must always be available in the house as they are regular in almost everything we cook.

 Ingredients for the mincemeat:

• 500g mince beef – LIDL – 87p
  

  Meal ingredients

• ½ medium onion
• 3 garlic cloves
• Salt
• Pepper
• Curly parsley

Ingredients for the tomato sauce:

• 10 tomatoes – market – 50p
• ½ medium onion
• Ketchup

For the pasta:

• 500gr Fusilli pasta – LIDL – 45p
• Curly parsley – Market – 50p 

Total spent: £2.32 – 0.58pp

Method:

• Start by the meatball: Remove all packaging from the meat and place in a bowl.
  

  Mince meat

• Finely chop half of a medium onion, garlic, a handful of curly parsley and add to the mince. Also season with salt & pepper, then combine well using you hand.
• Now form the meatballs as big or small as you’d like. And place them in the saucepan you will be using for the tomato sauce. You would have noted that there is no eggs or bread crumbs added here as they are not really necessary.
  

  Balls ready to cook

• Now place the pan on a medium heat making sure to very gently turn each meat ball from side to as the meat browns. Allow 1-2 minutes per side. Once this is done, remove the meat from the pan leaving the pan on the heat.

As the meat cooks, it will release fat and we are going to use that fat for make the tomato sauce.

• Chop the remaining half onion and fry it in the meat fat for 2 minutes on high heat.
• Now add the chopped tomatoes, stir and cover for 10 minutes.
  

  Cooked meat

• After the 10 minutes, stir the content of the pan, then add the meatballs and ketchup. Stir and add 200ml water or stock if you wish.
• Adjust the seasoning, stir and leave to simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Now time to cook the pasta.

Follow the instruction on the package.

Boil the water with a table spoon of oil and salt. Just before serving, chop the remaining Parsley, add the pasta and toss.

Plate and serve.

Enjoy.

Note: Read the whole recipe before starting! If you were doing this dish from a food bank parcel, you’d have to use tinned tomatoes, pasta and a tinned meat from the parcel also. Please download The Bank Cook to see the recipe.

Shopping: the tomatoes were bought on Surrey street market where a bowl of about 20 medium tomatoes can be found at £1.00.