Gino's Meatballs

Things got off to a retro start on Saturday when I tried to retrieve the vestiges of summer eating by doing Jamie's wonky summer pasta from his 30 minute recipe book, basically a pasta with a home made pesto consisting of a lot of parmesan mixed with basil, lemon juice and olive oil and a few other bits and pieces but it was delicious. Then on Sunday had first culinary disaster for a long time, and it came from the National Trust cookery book I mentioned last week, and which I had high hopes for - a pork and apple kind of hot pot, slow cooked. Well, it said slice a kilo of potatoes and layer them on the top, and I did, and that was the problem, they didn't cook after a long spell in the oven on the lowest heat. Seeing they weren't cooking I turned it up but it was too late to save, the potatoes were thinly sliced but deeply layered, probably an inch deep in places, so basically we had a stew of pork and apples in a watery sauce with raw potatoes, which my wife tried to save by frying, but it didn't really work. Oh the joys of English cooking, flavourless food and raw spuds.
               Monday was a bit better with a risotto of Chorizo and peas. Then on Tuesday there wasn't time to cook anything so I bought ready made pizzas from Asda, a spicy meaty one and a spicy chicken one, and was surprised how good they were, in that doughy, chewy way that even thin-crust store-made pizzas have. Then in Wednesday I made meatballs from a recipe I hadn't tried before, Gino d'Campo's Italian Meatballs are big meatballs, mine were about he size of tennis balls, almost, a mixture of pork and lamb mixed with breadcrumbs, egg and pecorino cheese, baked in the oven for 20 mins then in the pot with passata for 30 mins, they were wonderful meatballs with lovely flavour and texture. Our dish of the week. On thursday had a slow cooked beef in red wine stew which my wife made while I was working, then on friday chicken pieces roasted with vegetables (courgette, peppers and aubergine). This takes us up to Saturday when we went to a party where the host laid on a catered buffet of such things as cod with samphire, duck with pomegranate, peppers with anchovy, roasted beetroot and many other lovely things. Strangely now, though, on Sunday, I have an upset stomach and am not sure what to eat today. If anything. Probably thanks to a late night more than food.