These were my next experiment in the slow cooker. All the ingredients were from our local Aldi, as was the slow cooker! We had dinner for under €10 which was a big success with everyone. I have included more traditional ways of cooking your meatballs which will be just as tasty.

500 grams / 1 pound minced beef (ground beef)

500 grams/ 1 pound minced pork (ground pork)

½ cup grated parmesan cheese

4 tablespoons tomato ketchup or Ballymaloe Relish

45 grams /½ cup/ 1.6 ounces bread crumbs (optional)

½ teaspoon dried oregano

1 egg

Fresh Spaghetti to serve

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. You can also include minced garlic and onion but I think these need to be cooked and cooled before adding them to your mince meat   I use a muffin scoop so that the meatballs are evenly sized but you can also use your hands. Wet them first so that the meat won’t stick to you. There are a couple of ways that you can cook these

1. Brown the meatballs in a pan on your hob, add the tomato sauce and allow to simmer slowly until the meatballs are cooked through
2. Cook off the meatballs in your oven and cook off the tomato sauce on the hob. Pour sauce over meatball when serving. I sometimes do this method as my youngest is fussy and wants just meatballs and pasta with no sauce!
3. Slow cooker! We did this last week for the first time and it was a big success. I placed all the meatballs into the bottom of the slow cooker and added the tomato sauce ingredients on top without cooking it first. I cooked it on high for 5-6 hours and the result was delicious. Very tender meatballs in sauce that everyone ate!

My simple tomato sauce

2 packets of Aldi Passata

½ teaspoon dried basil

½ teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon sugar

Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan and simmer over a low heat for 10 minutes. I sneak in puréed vegetables such as carrot or courgette (zucchini) too for a veggie hit.

If you want to make this dish gluten free, omit the breadcrumbs or use gluten free ones instead. I have made these without breadcrumbs and with gluten free crumbs and they are fine either way.