Spaghetti with meatballs

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 250 g whole wheat spaghetti
• 500 g minced beef
• Herbs, Italian
• salt and pepper
• Basil, approx. 2 – 3 g
• 1 egg(s), optional
• 2 tbsp olive oil for frying
• 1 large onion(s)
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 large bell pepper(s), red
• 1 m.-large eggplant(s)
• 1 m.-sized carrot(s)
• 8 m.-large vine tomatoes
• 2 tsp mustard
• 1 lemon(s), juice
• 8 tbsp tomato paste
• Cayenne pepper
• 4 bay leaves
• 9 peppercorns
• 120 g Parmesan, sliced
• 7 g basil

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 25 minutes; Total time approx. 55 minutes

Whole wheat spaghetti, sugar-free

Wash the tomatoes and remove the stems, then cut a crisscross pattern across the surface. Peel the carrot, onion, and garlic. Wash the eggplant, carrot, and bell pepper. Finely chop the basil leaves. Roughly chop 1/3 of the carrot, onion, and garlic, and 1/8 of the bell pepper. For the vegetable broth, cut the remaining vegetables into bite-sized pieces of your choice. Bring water to a boil, add bay leaves, a little salt, peppercorns, and the remaining onion, bell pepper, carrot, and eggplant, and simmer. Place the tomatoes in another container and cook for 4-5 minutes, then peel and cut into eighths. Combine the minced meat with salt, pepper, a little basil (about 2-3 g), and Italian herbs in a saucepan. If you like, add an egg to help the mixture stick together. Mix everything together and form round dumplings. Then fry them in a pan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, turning after 3-4 minutes. Cook the pasta according to the package instructions. Set the meatballs aside. For the sauce, sauté the roughly chopped vegetables (except the eggplant) in this pan for 3-4 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste, lemon juice, and mustard. Add the tomatoes and fry for another 3-4 minutes. Top up everything with 200 ml of strained vegetable stock and puree. Return the remaining ingredients, including all the spices, and the dumplings to the sauce and simmer for 15 minutes. In the meantime, fry the eggplant in a little olive oil in the pan and serve with the pasta, basil leaves, and Parmesan.