Easy recipes for any cook: from cheat's meals to cooking from scratch

Pastry recipes

Pickled mushrooms

15 minutes

Toasted penne with pork meatballs

Serves 4

Difficulty Easy

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cooking Time 45 minutes

Ingredients

For the meatballs:

500 g lean pork mince
2 t Italian parsley, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1⁄2 onion, finely chopped
Olive oil, for frying
6 cups chicken stock
2 baby leeks, cleaned and chopped
4 brown mushrooms, torn
1 T olive oil
400 g Woolworths organic wholewheat penne rigate
1 red bird’s-eye chilli, finely chopped
1⁄2 lemon, juiced
1 cup cream
Parmesan, for serving
Deep-fried basil leaves, for serving

Method

Combine all the ingredients for the meatballs, except the oil, in a bowl. Roll into balls and fry in a nonstick pan over a medium to high heat until golden. Finish off in the oven at 180° C to cook through.
Bring the stock to a simmer in a saucepan (do not boil). Keep warm over a low heat.
Heat a large pan over a medium to high heat. Fry the leeks and mushrooms in the olive oil until golden. Remove from the pan.
Add the penne to the pan and lightly fry until evenly coated with oil. Add a few ladles of stock and stir until absorbed over a fairly high heat. Repeat, gradually adding the stock, until the pasta is tender and swollen. This should take about 30 minutes.
Add the chilli, lemon juice and cream to the pan. Bring to the boil, then turn off the heat. Toss the meatballs and pasta and sprinkle with Parmesan. Season and garnish with basil.

Cook’s note: Cylindrical pasta shapes like penne are perfect for chunky sauces that get caught up in the tubes. I’m calling this risotto-pasta hybrid a rissasta! If you prefer your mushrooms with more texture, fry them separately in a little butter and toss through at the end.

Discover more pasta recipes here

Butternut, carrot and ginger soup with roasted chickpeas

Lemon queen of puddings

Easy lamb shank pie

Hot-water pastry

Chicken-and-mushrooms strudel

Split pea dhal

Pickled mushrooms

Farfalloni with Marmite-and-onion sauce

Slow-cooked lamb-and-pomegranate flatbread

Chocolate peanut-butter swirl pudding

Socca with warm olive salsa verde

Charcoal pasta with seaweed butter

Beetroot flatbread with charred greens

Butter chicken-style chickpea curry with busted rotis

Toasted penne with pork meatballs

Toasted penne with pork meatballs

Ingredients

Method