It has been an insanely busy week at work this week. Obviously, in such circumstances the blogging takes a back seat and cooking has been quick and simple.

Tonight, having finished work rather crawling off to bed immediately (which has crossed my mind several times during the day) I got myself down to Waitrose for supplies for tomorrow’s slow cooked ox cheek from the Polpo cookbook, as the meat needed to marinade overnight (more on that tomorrow).

By the time I got there and back, did my prep, I was positively cross-eyed with tiredness. I hadn’t had the chance to make dough during my lunch hour for my usual Friday night pizza. So I went to one of my favourite standbys.

This recipe is at its best with good traditional sausages from the Italian deli, but as a standby some good quality sausages will do perfectly well.

Pop your water on to boil for the pasta. In a separate pan, heat some oil and add some dried or a chopped fresh chilli (or in my case, both). I also add some fennel seeds (which I forgot until half way through this evening… told you I was tired!) Take two sausages per person and squeeze out the contents into little blobs (slightly bigger than a marble). These will be your little meatballs. It feels weird and slightly gross at first, but don’t think about it too much and it’ll soon be done. I tend to go with two sausages per person.

Round the blobs off between your hands so they are proper little polpette and add them to the oil. You need to give them a little attention to make sure they are evenly cooked.

Once the polpette are on their way and your pan of water is boiling, add the pasta. After 3-4 minutes have passed add some broccoli to the pasta pan.

Once your pasta is cooked and the broccoli is tender drain and add to the pan with the sausage polpette. Season (like I forgot to) and I like to finish with a quick drizzle of chilli oil.

Quick, tasty. And now, I am ready to sleep…