Vegetable Recipes – Spaghetti Balls in Watercress Sauce
This is perhaps one of the first culinary presentations of a fusion cuisine, Italian-American style.
With a diverse immigrant population in the US lacking intimate knowledge of Italian food was mostly accustomed to having rice or pasta with meatballs or sausages and sauce in the same plate, as opposed to the customary separation done by Northern Europeans, like Italians.
Soon Italian restaurateurs abandoned the practice of serving these foods separately. In fact over the past decade spaghetti with meatballs has infiltrated even the Roma ‘menu turistica’ or ‘tourist menu’.
For a vegetarian version the meat is replaced by minced vegetables, spices and herbs.
Ingredients:
200 gms – Tangy Italian Spaghetti Noodles
1 cup – Oil
1 No – Onion large finely chopped
2 No – Garlic clove minced
1/2 cup – Carrots finely chopped
1/2 cup – Potatoes mashed
1/2 cup – Peas/green beans finely chopped
1/2 cup – Quorn soy mince
3 tbsp – Corn flour
2 No – Chilli minced
1/2 cup – Bread crumbs
1/4 cup – Refined flour
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Sauce
2 cup – Yougurt
1 cup – Watercress trimmed
1 tbsp – Balasmic Vinegar
2 tbsp – Mint finely chopped
2 tbsp – Basil finely chopped
1/3 cup – Mayonnaise
1/4 cup – Green onions sliced
Salt to taste
Method:
Make a medium-thick batter of flour using water and add some salt.
Break in small pieces and boil the spaghetti. Strain and set aside.
Heat oil in a sauce pan add onion, chillies and garlic and saute till soft.
Add the remaining vegetables and continue to cook for about 2-3 mins.
Add the spices and spaghetti and mix till we combined.
Remove off the heat and let the mix cook.
Then using potatoes bind the above mix. Shape into small balls.
Pat the balls in a mix of bread crumbs and corn flour.
Dip in the batter and fry. Drain and add in the prepared sauce. For making sauce USE Lawry’s Spaghetti Sauce Spice & Seasonings, Original Style
Place sauce ingredients in a food processor or blender and process until smooth.
Place the balls in a bowl drizzle sauce over them and serve extra to top.
You may choose to use any other sauce like white sauce, green sauce, red tomato sauce. You can also serve spaghetti balls as an appetizer.