My rumbling tummy: Spaghetti with meatballs, peas and lemon

I never used to eat much pasta when I was growing up, but these days, I even have cravings for it! I love tomato based sauces, cream based sauces, or even those without any sorta sauce! (like aglio olio recipes, with just butter and garlic). As I don't eat beef, I haven't had the true bolognese sauces, although I have used pork and minced chicken in the past.

This recipe was inspired by a recipe found on the BBC Good Food website. I did make some tweaks to adjust it to my taste, and ended up not referring to that recipe at all when cooking it.

Spaghetti with meatballs, peas and lemon

Ingredients
For the meatballs (makes 8-12)
250 grammes of minced turkey
2 slices of fresh baguette
1 medium sized carrot, grated
2 stalks of spring onion, roughly chopped
3-4 sprigs of parsley
1 egg
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Grated cheddar (about 50 grammes)

For the pasta
250 grammes of spaghetti
100 grammes of frozen peas
3-4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
zest and juice of 1 medium sized lemon
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 1/2 tablespoons of creme fraiche
salt and pepper to taste
finely chopped parsley for garnish

Method

First, we make the meatballs: Blitz the baguette along with the parsley and 1 tsp of olive oil. The fresh baguette helps makes the meatballs moist and juicy.
Mix the breadcrumbs with the meat in a mixing bowl. Add the grated carrot, spring onions and egg. Stir until well combined, and add the cheddar. Lightly mix, and season with a little salt and plenty of black pepper.
Shape the mixture into meatballs about the size of the centre of your palm, say about 2-3 cms in diameter. They don't have to be of a particular size though! Just bear in the mind the time needed to cook them will increase the bigger the balls are :)
Pan fry the meatballs in a deep pan (or wok) until golden brown with the remaining oil. Drain and leave aside.
Cook the pasta according to the packet's instructions, until al dente. Drain and reserve some of the starchy liquid.
While the pasta is cooking we finish up the sauce. Using the oil used to cook the meatballs, add another tablespoon of oil into the wok. The oil used to cook the meatballs has SO much flavour, don't throw it away!
When the oil is hot, add the garlic and frozen peas.
When the garlic starts to turn a bit brown, add the lemon juice and lemon zest. Stir well with a spatula and season with salt and pepper.
Add the spaghetti to the sauce.
Turn down the heat to low, and add the creme fraiche. Stir well until well combined. If the sauce is too thick, add the liquid from cooking the spaghetti.
Add the meatballs and gently stir them in, be careful not to over do it, else they'll fall apart.
Garnish with chopped parsley.
Enjoy!

The meatballs were so juicy! Don't leave out the carrot, as it helps keep the meatballs juicy and gives a lovely sweetness. So yummy! The creme fraiche in the sauce gave the dish a richness, thus not much was needed. Although the dish was slightly rich, the tang from the lemon juicy livens up the flavours of the dish, and makes it even better! Don't leave that out either! :)