Jamie Oliver's Spaghetti and Sausage Meatballs

I've been completely immersed in my new Jamie at Home Cookbook for the past couple of weeks. I can't stop browsing the beautiful photographs and the wonderful simple recipes. Since receiving the book for my birthday, I've made the spinach and mushroom calzone which was so delicious that I ate it too fast to take a picture. I've also made the asparagus soup which I'll post on later, and these spaghetti and sausage meatballs.

It pains me to say that after many, many hours slaving away in the kitchen all day making meatballs, that this is the best spaghetti and meatballs I've ever had. I've recently learned a few things on simplicity. Much like the many hours spent on meatballs, I used to spend all afternoon making tomato sauce. That is until I didn't have an afternoon to spare and I tried out this 5 minute tomato sauce from 101 Cookbooks. The sauce was amazing. Like the tomato sauce, I'll never spend hours making meatballs again. It's just simply not necessary.

RECIPE courtesy of Jamie Oliver's Jamie at Home Cookbook:
Olive oil
8 good quality pork sausages
1 LB spaghetti
Sea salt
11 oz fresh peas, in their pods
Parmesan cheese for serving
a few sprigs of fresh marjoram, thyme, or rosemary, leaves picked

Heat a large saucepan and add a good amount of olive oil. Using scissors or a knife, cut the sausages into about 1 inch pieces. Remove the sausage from the casing and place them into the pan. Saute on all sides until they are a nice brown color on all sides. Add the herbs and cook for another 30 seconds. Remove from the pan and drain on paper towels. Boil the spaghetti according to package instructions and heat up the tomato sauce. When the spaghetti is done cooking and the tomato sauce is heated, twirl a bunch of spaghetti onto a plate, followed by a ladle of tomato sauce and top with the sausage meatballs. Finish everything with a good grating of Parmesan cheese and a shelling of the peas.

Jamie's Tomato Sauce is as follows, however, I always use my 5 minute tomato sauce:
Olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced
a small bunch of fresh picked basil, leaves picked, stalks finely chopped
1 14 oz cans of good quality plum tomatoes
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
good quality balsamic vinegar

Heat a pan and pour in the olive oil. Add the garlic and chopped basil stalks, move them around for a minute or two. Put some small basil leaves aside for later, and sprinkle the rest into the pan. Add the tomatoes and season carefully to taste. Bring to a simmer, break up your tomatoes a bit more with a spoon and add a swig of balsamic vinegar.