Spaghetti With Meatballs

Every child loves eating spaghetti – especially with their friends. Just remember that classic scene in The Lady and The Tramp, which was of course in an Italian restaurant, and you can see the appeal.
Chasing long, skinny pasta covered in tomato sauce is fun as well as tasty. Add in a meatball or two and you've got a guaranteed favourite.
It's also great to make and quick. Fifteen minutes later and there's an authentic dish of pasta for you and your little ones to enjoy.
It's filling but I bet there won't be any left overs!

What you'll need:

250 gm lean mincemeat to roll into meatballs (but every supermarket sells fresh ones that are just as good!)
I packet spaghetti (cook approx 50gm per child)
I stick celery
Half a carrot
Half an onion
Olive oil
Parmesan to garnish
400gms passata

How long it will take to make – 15 minutes

Difficulty rating – easy

How to make it

1. Fill large saucepan three quarters full of water and put on to boil. Drop in the dried spaghetti and cook
2. Meanwhile finely chop onion, carrots and celery
3. Heat two tablespoons olive oil on a medium heat in a frying pan
4. Add the onion and cook until soft and slightly golden, add the carrots followed by celery
5. Stir the mixture for one or two minutes
6. Roll the mincemeat into balls (you choose how big you want them) and drop them into the frying pan along with the onion mixture
7. Cook for around five to seven minutes until they are cooked all over – you'll need to keep moving them to ensure they're evenly cooked
8. Add the passata in with the meatballs, turn up the heat and keep stirring occasionally until the sauce begins to bubble
9. Turn down the heat and simmer for five minutes. Your sauce is now ready, so turn it off if your spaghetti isn't cooked but it should all be done if you've timed it right.
Don't overcook the spaghetti – it should still be al dente. Don't throw it at the wall as you English love to do to see if it's cooked. This is a myth. If it sticks it's overcooked!
10. Drain the pasta (not through cold or hot water and don't use any oil).
11. Throw the pasta into the meat ball sauce and mix it – with the heat back on to medium – so that it's piping hot and every strand of spaghetti is covered with the sauce.
12. Serve into bowls and sprinkle parmesan over the top to taste.
Mmm – have a napkin handy because if your child is anything like mine they'll soon be wearing their dinner!

Pesto pasta with prawns

Fish, olive oil and basil are all fresh, tasty ingredients that literally feed your little one's brain power as well as their appetites.
All you need for this simple, popular dish is ten minutes and at least one little chef who will love literally throwing the ingredients into a pan.
My seven-year-old son is the fussiest eater going, but he begs me to cook this at least once a week as he adores tucking into the prawns.
It usually ends up with a fight at the dinner table when his two-year-old sister tries to steal them off his plate. So make sure you plenty to go around!

What you'll need:

250 gms fresh/frozen peeled King prawns
Packet of Linguine/Spaghetti
Small box of cherry tomatoes
Five tablespoons olive oil
70gms Basil
Salt and pepper
1 garlic clove
Parmesan cheese

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Difficulty rating: Easy peasy!

Feeds 4

How to make:
1. Fill a large saucepan with slightly salted water and bring to the boil
2. Wash basil and place in a bowl with five tablespoons of olive oil an garlic clove. Using a hand blender, blend it into a liquid
3. Empty the pasta into the boiling water, then drizzle two tablespoons of olive oil into a frying pan and put on a low heat. Check on packet how long the pasta has to be cooked. Do not over cook - Italian pasta needs to be al dente
4. Chuck the prawns into the frying pan and cook until golden and crispy
5. Two minutes before the pasta's ready, chop the cherry tomatoes in half and chuck them into the frying pan with the prawns
6. Drain the pasta, then add it to the frying pan along with the prawns and tomatoes. Pour the basil pesto over the top and mix. Sprinkle parmesan over the top and cook for a further minute on full heat.
7. Serve and eat!

Tasty Stuffed Tomatoes

Tomatoes are at the heart of Italian cooking. They're cheap, easy to cook and full of flavour.

My kids love pasta pomodoro but they also love these tasty stuffed tomatoes. This is the easiest recipe ever. Even if you've never cooked before, all you need for this is a hand blender and tablespoon.

It's all in the preparation. I ask my little chef - my seven-year-old son - to help me stuff the tomatoes. He loves that job, even if he does end with as much stuffing on the floor as he does in the tomatoes.

Better still, it's a sneaky way to get your children to eat veg. I often cook the peas and hide them in the stuffing mixture so they don't even know they're eating their greens.

'Mmmmm,' my two-year-old girl will say, and even my fussy son will polish off the lot. Enjoy!

You will need

4 Beef Tomatoes

1 clove garlic

30gms fresh parsley

6 tablespoon arborio rice (measure before cooking)

Handful of frozen/tinned/fresh garden peas

Salt and pepper

Oven chips (frozen)

Preparation time - two hours (but only 10 minutes of that is doing anything!)

Difficulty rating - easy! The kids can help you do the only fiddly bit - stuffing the tomatoes.

How to make:

1. Using a very sharp knife cut the top off each tomato to use later as a lid (cut half inch down from the root). Sprinkle some salt inside and place upside down on a tray to drain out all the moisture.

2. Scoop out the insides of the tomatoes using a tablespoon and put the mixture into a bowl

3. Blend the mixture, using a hand blender, until it's like soup - creamy with no lumps

4. Finely chop the garlic, parsley and add, along with the dried rice (not cooked), and a pinch of salt and pepper into the soupy mixture. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave in the fridge for a few hours. The longer you can leave it the more flavour the mixture will have.

5.After at least two hours, remove the mixture from the fridge. Preheat oven to 180 C, Gas 4. Use a tablespoon to stuff the tomatoes with the mixture - fill up to the top. Place the 'lid' back on the tomatoes (complete with root) and place in the oven, on a baking tray. Drizzle olive oil over the top of the tomatoes.

6. Cook at 180 C, Gas 4, for 30 minutes. Ten minutes before the end of the cooking time, pop the oven chips into the oven to cook until golden brown.

7. Serve with oven chips, and garden peas. My kids like it with carrots too. Pour the juice of the tomatoes from the baking tray over the top for a yummy sauce. You can eat everything except the stalk!

Serve hot or cold.