Prepare less than 30 mins
Cook 30 mins to 1 hour
Serve Serves 4
Dietary Dairy-free Egg-free Pregnancy-friendly

A simple tomato sauce with lots of flavour is perfect for spaghetti and meatballs. A weeknight classic that goes down a storm with the family. It’s also great for batch cooking.

This is designed to be a low cost recipe.

Ingredients

For the sauce

  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 brown onion, chopped
  • 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
  • 1 tsp dried mixed herbs
  • 400g tin tomatoes
  • 500ml/18fl oz vegetable or beef stock (from a cube)
  • 400g/14oz dried spaghetti
  • salt and pepper

For the meatballs

  • 400g/14oz beef mince
  • 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
  • ½ tsp dried mixed herbs
  • 1 tbsp olive oil

Method

  1. Heat a large saucepan over a medium heat and add the olive oil. Once hot, add the onion and cook gently without browning for 4–5 minutes, or until softened and translucent. Add the garlic, continue to cook for 2 minutes until aromatic, then add the dried herbs, tomatoes and stock.
  2. Bring the sauce to a simmer, reduce the heat and simmer gently while you make the meatballs.
  3. For the meatballs, mix together the beef, garlic and herbs along with a decent pinch of salt and pepper. Using wet hands roll into 20 balls.
  4. Heat a frying pan over a medium heat and add the olive oil. Once hot, fry the meatballs on all sides until nicely coloured, being careful not to burn them. You may need to do this in batches. Transfer to the saucepan containing the sauce.
  5. Continue to simmer the sauce for 10 minutes while you cook the spaghetti.
  6. Bring a large saucepan water to the boil, add a pinch of salt and cook the spaghetti according to the packet instructions. Once cooked, drain and tip into the saucepan with the meatball sauce. Mix well and serve hot.

Recipe tips

Make a big batch of the meatballs or meatballs in the sauce to freeze for super quick dinners in the future. The sauce and meatballs will freeze for up to 3 months. Cook the pasta fresh as it gets very sticky and chewy when reheated.

For simplicity these meatballs are made with just beef mince, but feel free to use a mix of beef and pork if you wish.

The best beef mince for meatballs should have a decent amount of fat to ensure they are juicy and not dry. Look for mince with 10–15% fat (20% fat is also fine, but you will end up tipping away much of the fat after frying them in step 3 so its not as cost-effective).

A pack of 20 readymade meatballs can used, but they are more expensive. If you see any discounted this is an easy way to use them though.

If you have a bottle of red wine available, feel free to add a splash to the sauce at the end of step 1.

Use whatever tinned tomatoes are cheapest or convenient. Chopped tomatoes used to be cheaper, but that’s not always the case nowadays. If using whole plum tomatoes, use kitchen scissors to chop them while they are still in the tin – this is quick, easy and creates far less mess than transferring them to a chopping board. They don’t need to be very finely chopped as they will break down as they cook, but if you see any large lumps of tomato in the sauce use a wooden spoon (or similar) to squash them and break into pieces.

In September 2023 this recipe was costed at an average of £3.86 when checking prices at four UK supermarkets. This recipe is designed to be made in conjunction with a low-cost store-cupboard, for more details click here to see how our budget recipes were costed.