Making the most of local arts

Work is really busy at the moment, so we are relying quite heavily on our stock of freezer meals. However, when I feel as though there might be a bit of time for cooking, I relish the opportunity to cook a meal completely using fresh ingredients. Friday last week was one of those opportunities, I finished work in the morning and took my son to a local arts centre, New Brewery Arts in Cirencester for lunch. This is a regular lunch date that I share with my son and it's fair to say that we both love it. Normally we have a bowl of delicious home-made soup and a child's sandwich. This has recently been joined by a shortbread star which is my son's favourite pudding treat. I love the food that they serve, the bread is from a local bakery and they always have a fabulous range of home-made meals and cakes on offer. Afterwards, we'll go and look at the current exhibition that is showing, at the moment, this is a tactile ceramic exhibition which is so much fun, especially as you can touch everything! My particular favourite is the noise making ceramic pots, including the readymade sticks to beat them with.

Anyway, I digress from what I actually cooked on Friday night! This is a meal that will need your attention from start to finish but it can be prepared and on the table in 30 minutes (it is easier with a little help if you can get it!) Children love little meat balls and this sauce is a great way of including a couple of vegetables to make it really colourful. I can understand why parents try to hide vegetables in tomato sauces but this isn't the reason why I use a mini food processor to finely chop the onion and carrot, it's simply a really convenient way to get finely chopped vegetables. This easily fed two adults and our son on Friday night but if you wanted to feed more people, you could increase the amount of meatballs or you could add more vegetables to the sauce or cook some garlic bread to go with the dish. We served ours with a small pack of cooked gnocchi.

Pork meatballs, tomato sauce and gnocchi

Pork meatballs

250g Pork mince

50g breadcrumbs

50g grated parmesan

Salt & pepper

1 tbsp chopped fresh sage (use less if using dried sage)

1 tbsp vegetable oil

Tomato sauce

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 onion

1 large carrot

Tin of chopped tomatoes

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp oregano

200g spinach

1. In a large bowl mix together all of the ingredients for the pork meatballs. I use a fork to help me get this started but it is best to get stuck in with hands.
   
2. In a large frying pan, pour 1 tbsp vegetable oil and place on a medium heat. Make your pork mix into small meatballs, you can make them whatever size you prefer, but I tend to keep them small so that they cook through relatively quickly, about the size of a walnut is good. Place them in the frying pan, try not to turn them too early, they need to brown so that they don't stick to the pan.
   
3. Chop the onion and carrot finely (this is where I used my mini food processor). Once the meatballs are starting to look cooked add 1 tbsp vegetable oil and the carrot and onion. Let this cook for a few minutes until the carrot and onion start to soften.
   
4. Find a large saucepan and fill the kettle and set it to boil (this is for the gnocchi).
   
5. Add the tin of chopped tomatoes, tomato paste and oregano to the frying pan containing the meatballs. Make sure the heat is medium or lower as you don't want to burn anything. Keep stirring the sauce.
   
6. Cook the gnocchi according to the packet instructions.
   
7. Add the spinach to the frying pan and if you have a lid, put the lid on. Give the spinach a few minutes to steam and then stir into the sauce. Drain the gnocchi once it is cooked and add to the frying pan. Give everything one last stir to make sure the gnocchi is coated and serve.