Plan B Inspired Meat Balls Pasta

Deardo and I love Plan B a lot and one of our recent favourites is their Moroccan Lamb Meat Balls Pasta. After a few times trying the dish, I've decided to try to make it at home, based on whatever I can taste from the dish at the restaurant. So far I've tried to make it with minced chicken and minced pork and photos below show the one that I've used minced chicken.

What you need:

Spaghetti, Tomato basil garlic paste, chopped garlic, chopped onions, minced (pork, chicken, beef or lamb), cumin, eggplant cut into rectangular shapes, cherry tomatoes, fresh basil leaves, bits of cornflour, coarse black pepper, pepper, soya sauce and salt to taste.

What you need to do:
(Meat Balls)
1. Mix the onion with the minced meat, add in pepper, black pepper and soya sauce (or salt) and stir evenly.

2. Add in some cornflour to soften the meat and to make it easier for you to roll into balls.

3. Roll into balls with both palms. Size of the meat balls is up to your own preference.

4. Now heat up a pan with some oil, then pan fry the meat balls until they are cooked. Removed and set aside on a sheet of kitchen paper.

(Vegetables)
1. You can use the same pan, heat it up with some oil, then put the eggplant in and pan fry them till they turn soft. This might take some time, perhaps about 15 minutes. 

2. Now add in the cherry tomatoes and continue to cook.

3. Until the tomatoes also turn soft, remove all the vegetables and set aside. 

(The Tomato Paste)
1. Heat up the pan with some oil, simmer the chopped garlic till they turn a little brownish.

2. Add in the cumin and continue to stir. You should be able to smell the nice fragrant from the cumin by now. In my opinion, cumin is the most important ingredient used in this dish.  

3. Now pour in generous amount of the tomato paste. Dump the fresh basil leaves in as well. 

4. Now add in the meat balls and allow the paste to boil.

5. Now add in the vegetables and continue to cook for another 5 minutes.

6. Add in some salt and black pepper to taste and your paste is done. You can either add the parboiled spaghetti in to cook for a while or simply just pour the paste over the cooked spaghetti to serve. I also recently found they sprinkle some white sesame on top of the dish, so you can try that too!

The spaghetti is unique in a way that it has all the nutrition you need in a dish, both meat and vegetables. The cumin also made the dish smells and tastes very interestingly yummy! :)
My experience tells me that minced chicken isn't a good choice for the dish. The texture made it too hard to roll it into balls and taste wise also very so-so. Minced pork was way better. I'm trying to get minced lamb to make this dish for one of our Christmas dinner and I do believe that it should taste better!
Are you still thinking of what to cook for Christmas? This might be a good idea, hey?

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!