Delightful Sweet Chilli Carbonara Meatballs

Instructions

1. Place your beef mince, sweet chilli sauce, beef OXO and dried herbs into a mixing bowl. Grate your white onion until most of it has gone, and toss in your salt and pepper. Give everything a good mix together with your hands. Once everything is mixed properly, divide the mixture into ten piles. To serve 5 people, this will make about 10 meatballs of a good size.
2. At this point, as always, you can either marinate in the fridge for half an hour or overnight – it’s up to you. Naturally, this will significantly improve the flavour, but you can get stuck in straight away if not.
3. Heat a pan to medium heat, and put in a smallish glut of olive oil. Place your meatballs into the pan quickly, ensuring none get longer on the heat than others, and cook gently on low to medium heat. You want plenty of colour on the meatballs, but you also want them to be cooked through.
4. Whilst the meatballs are cooking, put your cream, pancetta or bacon and parmesan (saving a little for a garnish at the end) into another mixing bowl or large mug. Mix everything together with a fork.
5. Once the meatballs have been cooking for at least 15 minutes, pour the carbonara mixture over the top. Next, reduce the pan to low heat, put the lid on top and cook for another 12 to 15 minutes, making sure you keep stirring regularly.
6. Serve with long grain rice and petits pois (peas) over the top. Garnish with a bit of black pepper and more of the parmesan cheese.