Fusion debut: Chinese spaghetti meatballs!

Chinese meatballs and eggplants with wheat spaghetti!

So I bet you are thinking, how come we never created some type of Chinese Italian dish? Here is our fusion debut.

I wanted to make eggplant spaghetti whereas Michele wanted some Chinese meatballs. So we combined the both, and here's our fusion creation from our Taiwanese Italian family.

Ginger, garlic and chive really brings out the juiciness and texture from the meatballs. I am a big fan of wheat pasta, but Michele is a traditionalist so he's not so fond of it...but I'm sure he will slowly adjust =)

I also cooked asparagus as a side dish. Just blanched them in water. It counter-balanced really well with the salty, flavorful pasta, eggplant and meatballs

Ingredients:

wheat spaghetti ( or linguine)

1 eggplant

3 tablespoons of hoisin sauce

1/2 bunch of chives

one clove of garlic

for the meatballs:

one clove of garlic

1/2 bunch of chives

one pack of ground veal and pork

two thin slices of ginger

2 tablespoons of soy sauce

a pinch of pepper

Preperation:

In a medium bowl, combine chopped garlic, chopped ginger together with the pork and veal. toss in chopped chives, stir in soy sauce, pepper, and integrate well.

Use your hands to form little meatballs. In a frying pan of oil, cook the meatballs, occasionally turning them, and when they are cooked, set aside. Keep the juices inside the pan for the eggplants.

Simultaneously, cook the eggplant on one stove and start the pasta on another stove.

Cut eggplants into 1 inch lengths, and stir fry them with the meatball juices. when the liquids are gone, add the hoisin sauce, and 2 tablespoons of the pasta water. Add the chives that are cut into 1 inch lengths.

In a pot of boiling water, add salt and cook pasta until al dente. Wheat pasta usually takes about 10 minutes. Time well, drain and toss into the mixture immediately. Add in meatballs and gently fold together.

Surprisingly, this fusion dish was a success!