I’ve whizzed the soup together here before adding the beans as I wanted something a bit smoother and wanted the sausage flavour to spread nicely through the soup. If you want something even more rustic, feel free to leave out the blending and leave it nice and chunky.

Rustic Italian Sausage, Tomato and Pesto Soup

Serve 4 – 3sp per serving (Flex)

Ingredients

4 x low fat pork sausages, skinned (I used Sainsbury’s Be Good to Yourself Cumberland Sausages, these are 6sp for 4 sausages)

1 large red onion, peeled and roughly chopped

3 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped

2 red peppers, deseeded and roughly chopped

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 pack of salad tomatoes (around 300g), roughly chopped

400g tin of chopped tomatoes

1 chicken stock cube

700ml boiling water

300g tin of beans of your choice (I’ve used mixed, cannellini and kidney), drained

2 tsp green pesto

1 tsp each paprika, oregano and crushed chillies

30g fresh parmesan, grated

Method

Take a large saucepan, spray with 1kal and add the sausage meat. Fry on a high heat until the sausage is cooked and starting to brown. Add the red onion, garlic, peppers and balsamic and fry for five minutes until the onions start to soften (add a drop of water if the pan becomes too dry). Add the fresh tomatoes, season and fry for another minute and then add the tin of tomatoes, chicken stock cube and boiling water.

Bring to the boil and then reduce to a simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove from the heat and blitz using a stick blender (or food processor).

Once relatively smooth, add the beans, pesto, paprika, oregano and crushed chillies. Stir and simmer for another 10 minutes. Season to taste adding more crushed chillies if you fancy.

Enjoy!

The post Rustic Italian Sausage, Tomato and Pesto Soup – 3sp first appeared on Slimming Kitchen Secrets.

If you don’t want to fiddle on making to meatball yourself you could use shop bought meatballs and use all the mozzarella on top to bake it. If you do have the time I would highly recommend giving these ago. I made up enough meatballs for four people (20 meatballs) and left half (10) uncooked in the fridge for tea the next day.

If you prefer the sauce wet and saucy, use passata, if you like it a bit more dry, use the chopped tomatoes.

Ingredients

Serves 4 = 12sp (previously 12pp) each

For the sauce

1 onion, finely sliced

2 or 3 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped

2 peppers, deseeded and sliced

¼ tsp crushed chillies (1/2 a tsp if you like it spicy)

1 tsp oregano

125ml red wine

2 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes (or large box of passata)

¼ tsp sugar

1 chicken stock cube

1 bay leaf

Basil leaves (optional)

For the meatballs

1 egg

500g extra lean beef mince (5% fat)

2 sliced of bread, toasted and wizzed into breadcrumbs 

50ml red wine

1 tsp oregano and sage

½ tsp rosemary and thyme

Splash of balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp parmesan

125g half fat mozzarella ball

160g spaghetti

Method

Preheat the oven to 180c.

Begin by making the sauce. Spray a sauce pan with 1kal and fry the onions until they start to soften. Then add the peppers, garlic, crushed chillies and oregano, stir and fry for another few minutes. Add the wine, tomatoes (or passata), stock cube, sugar and bay leaf. Season well with salt and pepper and leave to simmer on a low heat while you make the meatballs.

Pop the breadcrumbs into a large mixing bowl. Add 50ml red wine, stir and leave to absorb for a few minutes. Add the herbs, balsamic vinegar and 1 tbsp parmesan to the bread crumbs and give a stir. Then add the mince and get your hands in there to combine everything nicely. Add the egg and again, combine well.  Split the mixture into 20 rough meatball shapes.

Take the mozzarella ball and chop into 1cm square cubes. This will give you more than 20 squares so there will be some left over to bake on top. Then take each meatball in turn, flatten in one hand, pop a cube of mozzarella in the middle and shape the meat around it to seal the cheese. Roll between both hands so you have a nice round shape. Repeat this for all 20 meatballs.

Next take a large oven proof frying pan and, in batches if necessary, spray with 1kal and fry the meatballs until browned on the outside.  If you don’t have an oven proof frying pan, once browned pop the meatballs into a large baking dish. Pour the sauce, which should now have reduced slightly to a thicker ragu, over the meatballs.

Pop in the oven for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, top with the mozzarella and bake for another 15 minutes. Pop the spaghetti on when you put the meatballs back in the oven.

Serve the spaghetti topped with the melting meatball sauce. Top with a few basil leaves. When you cut into the meatballs they should be cooked through with cheese oozing out. Delish!

Enjoy!

The post Melting Mozzarella Meatballs – 12sp first appeared on Slimming Kitchen Secrets.

Ingredients

Sauce Serves 4 = 6sp (previously 5pp) each

n.b I serve this with 60g tagliatelle per person so the whole meal is 12sp

1 x pack of Venison Meatballs (I got mine from Aldi, you get 12 in a pack and they are 1pp per meatball!)

2 x onions, sliced

2 x carrots, peeled and roughly diced

2 x stick of celery, roughly diced

4 x cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped

2 x peppers (colour of your choice), deseeded and diced

1 x box of mushrooms, sliced (I use chestnut)

100g tomato puree (around half a tube)

200ml red wine

400ml beef/chicken stock made with 1 stock cube (whichever you prefer, both are lovely)

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped (or dry if you don’t have fresh)

1 x bay leaf

¼ tsp ground cinnamon

Grating of nutmeg

¼ tsp sugar

Salt and Pepper

1 tbsp single cream (optional)

A few crushed chillies (optional but I love spice!)

Method

Take a large frying pan, spray with low cal cooking spray and fry your meatballs for 10-12 minutes until nicely browned on the outside. Take off the heat and pop to one side.

Meanwhile, in a large sauce pan, spray with low cal cooking spray and fry the onions for 3-4 minutes until they start to soften. Add a splash of water if needed to stop everything sticking to the bottom of the pan. Add the carrots and celery and cook for another few minutes and then add the peppers and mushrooms. Cook for another two minutes and then add the tomato puree. Give this a good stir and then cook for around 5 minutes until the tomato puree has nicely cooked and soaked into all of the vegetables.

Next add the red wine and leave to simmer for a minute or two. Then add the stock along with the oregano, rosemary, cinnamon, nutmeg and bay leaf. Give a good stir, add the sugar and season well with salt and pepper. Pop the meatballs back into the sauce and then leave the whole thing to simmer on medium for around half an hour. The ragu sauce should start to reduce nicely. If you find your sauce is still to watery after 25 minutes, turn up the heat a little and this will help the reduction process along.

After your sauce has been cooking for around 15 minute, pop your pasta on to boil. This way it should be cooked by the time your sauce is ready.

Once everything is cooked, add the cream to the meatball sauce, stir and season again (if you need your sauce a little looser, add a splash of pasta water and stir in). Remove the bay leaf. Add a good grating of fresh parmesan (optional and no more than ½ tbsp) stir and voila!

Pop your pasta into bowls and serve the venison meatballs, three per person. Top with the sauce and finish with a fine grating of parmesan!

Enjoy!

The post Venison Meatballs in a Red Wine Ragu Sauce – 6sp first appeared on Slimming Kitchen Secrets.