Quick sausage meatballs with a tomato & basil sauce, spaghetti & sweet raw peas
This is a fantastic recipe that completely celebrates everything I love about peas. Even though they only make an appearance right at the end, it's a star performance. I like to serve a pile of unpodded peas in the middle of the table so that everyone gets to pod some over their own plate. It's also an incredibly fast recipe – you can be sitting down to eat within a minute of the pasta being done. The key to getting it right, though, is to buy really good-quality sausage.
Estimated Nutrition (whole recipe, rough)
Counts 13 of 14 ingredients — the other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and contribute nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume — 13 portions →
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Pork Sausage | 100g cooked | 301 |
| Olive Oil | 1 tbsp (14g) | 119 |
| Parmesan Cheese | 1 oz (28g) | 110 |
| Peas | 1/2 cup (72g) | 62 |
| Plum | 1 medium (66g) | 30 |
| Tomato | 1 medium (123g) | 22 |
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Thyme | 1 tsp dried (1.4g) | 4 |
| Rosemary | 1 tsp dried (1.2g) | 4 |
| Garlic | 1 clove (3g) | 4 |
| Vinegar | 1 tbsp (15ml) distilled | 3 |
| Basil | 5 leaves fresh (2.5g) | 1 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Marjoram | not in our table | 0 |
Totals for the whole recipe, adding one typical portion per ingredient — listed above. Quantities in the recipe are not counted, so this is a rough guide only — not suitable for medical or dietary planning.
Ingredients
- olive oil
- 8 good-quality pork sausages
- 500 g spaghetti
- sea salt
- 300 g fresh peas, in their pods
- 1 block Parmesan cheese, to serve
- a few sprigs fresh marjoram, thyme or rosemary, leaves picked
- olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced
- 1 small bunch fresh basil, leaves picked, stalks finely chopped
- 2 x 400 g good-quality tinned plum tomatoes
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- good-quality balsamic vinegar