Pennette with meatballs baked in tomato sauce

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 1 stale roll
• 250 g minced meat, mixed
• 1 onion(s)
• 1 egg yolk
• salt and pepper
• Paprika powder, sweet
• 1 large can of tomatoes, peeled
• ½ onion(s)
• salt and pepper
• basil
• 1 ball(s) of mozzarella
• 1 bag of Parmesan cheese, grated
• 2 eggs
• 500 g pasta (pennette)
• n. B. Oil

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Total time approx. 30 minutes

a Neapolitan recipe from my mother-in-law – easy to prepare

Cook the pennette in plenty of salted water until almost al dente, refresh briefly, and place in an oblong baking dish. Finely chop the onion, soak the bread roll in lukewarm water and squeeze the excess water out. Then mix the minced meat, onion, torn bread roll, egg yolk, salt, pepper, and paprika into a meatball dough and form very small meatballs (approx. 1 cm in diameter). Fry in oil until crispy. For the tomato sauce, fry 1/2 of an onion in oil, add the tomatoes, chopped a little if necessary, along with the tomato juice, and bring to a boil. Add salt, pepper, and basil and simmer for about 20 minutes with the pan almost completely covered. Then add the cooked mini meatballs to the simmering tomato sauce and cook for about 15 minutes. Pour the sauce and meatballs onto the pennette and stir in a little. Cut the mozzarella into small pieces and scatter it over the pennette and meatballs. Boil the eggs for 10 minutes, rinse, peel, and cut into small pieces. Spread them on the mozzarella and then sprinkle generously with Parmesan cheese. Place the casserole dish in the oven on the middle rack and bake at approximately 180°C for 30 minutes. This tastes really delicious – but it’s not very sauce-heavy. The consistency is somewhat reminiscent of ham pasta or something similar, and it’s delicious.