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Nigella loves meatballs. That's a fact. Her meatball obsession didn't end with How to Eat (which includes four meatball recipes!), but has endured to the present day. There's the recipe for pasta and meatballs in Nigella Bites, and even in the most recent issue of Delicious magazine, Nigella's kiddie-friendly menu includes "Summer Meatballs".

260. Ham & Turkey Meatballs (Feeding Babies & Small Children)

Prior to this recipe, I had made 2 out of the 4 meatball recipes from How to Eat and been suitably impressed with both of them. (The similar meatballs from Nigella Bites are also delicious, incidentally). So, I was quite sure we'd enjoy these ones.

Of the ham and turkey meatballs, Nigella writes that they "were too moussey for adults, but... the children (and their friends) were very keen". They are a reformulation of Christmas dinner - leftover turkey and ham minced up and bound with sausage meat.

After Christmas, I carefully bagged up and froze the leftover turkey meat, and did the same with the ham in coca cola. Today, I bought some proper pork sausages from my butcher, and I was in business.


ham turkey sausages

I used the meat from one sausage, and also added some white bread, soaked in water and squeezed out, to make sure the mixture combined properly.


minced

I got 40 balls out of this mixture, although the quantity you get will depend (obviously) on the amounts of leftover meats you have, and on the dimensions of your balls.


balls

Then I cooked them in a tomato-based sauce, which had been simmering gently while I'd been forming the balls. (Yes, we all know the Nigella tomato sauce by now - finely chopped onion, garlic and carrot, cooked until soft, with tinned tomato added and simmered) .


pasta

And voilà! A delicious, climate-appropriate meal, which was not too moussy for the adults. Quite the opposite, we all loved it. I don't know what kids like to eat, but I suspect they would like this very much. And it would give them the energy to get through their busy kiddie days. I know this because this pasta gave me the energy I needed to go to the (totally rocking) Franz Ferdinand concert later that night. Wooh!