Dinner with a Wild Boar

We usually go for fresh chorizo when making our pasta del casa, but when I saw this gorgeous gaudy label in the sausage fridge I simply couldn't resist it. The result was a sweeter sauce, and plumper meatballs. For want of a better word, they were springier than chorizo. Perhaps a better word would be fattier? But very very good. This is a definite repeater.

GATHER TOGETHER

• Dried pasta. Fusilli is the pasta of choice in our house, primarily because of a New Yorker cartoon that still puts us into fits of laughter after many years. Read to the end of the page.
• Olive oil
• A couple of cloves of garlic
• A couple of big pinches of dried oregano
• Two cans of chopped tomatoes
• A good slosh of red wine (Chateau Cardboard is just fine)
• Wild boar sausages (or any good uncooked sausages)
• A lemon
• Cream if you want a smoother edge to the sauce

Take a moment to admire the garlic. So beautiful at this time of the year.

 

HOW TO

Make almost instant meatballs
I honestly can't be bothered mucking around with mixtures of mince, herbs, onions, breadcrumbs and whatever else goes into your average meatball, when a well-made sausage does the job for you.

• Snip the end off a sausage casing.
• Squeezed out a meatball sized lump.
• Keep squeezing out meatballs until the casing is empty, then start on your next sausage. 

Voila!

Make a very quick tomato sauce, but before you start, put on a big pot of salty water for boiling the pasta

• Glug some olive oil into a heavy pot, and heat it very gently. No smoke please. Adjust the amount of oil depending on how fatty or lean the meatballs are.
• Warm up the garlic and oregano in the oil.
• Add the meatballs and heat them through. It's ok if they brown a bit, but keep the heat lowish so you don't burn the garlic.
• Add the tomatoes and all their juice. 
• Use a good slosh of red wine to swish the tomato cans clean, then add wine to the pot.
• Bubble away gently until the meatballs are cooked through and the sauce is as thick as you like it.

You can eat it like it is, or you can add some layers of flavour with a scrape of lemon zest, a squirt of lemon juice, and a nice slosh of cream. Let it boil for a few more minutes, then serve with the pasta (as always, boiled in water as salty as the Med, no oil, drained fast and put back in the pot immediately, lid on).

Set the table, light some candles and enjoy your dinner with some wild boars. And don't forget to have a giggle about the pasta...