One night we decided to make Swedish meatballs. It was pretty straight forward and easy. We’ve been using frozen meatballs for a lot of our meatballs lately as it’s a huge time saver. If you don’t get them specifically flavored, such as Italian, they’ll pretty much take on the flavor of what they’re cooked in.

Now that we have a little one, who demands and deserves, a lot of our time we’re always looking for simple things to make. The original recipe we followed for the meatballs was great. It was a bit more complicated than we usually have time for, sadly, but it was enough of an inspiration for me to say “I wonder if we can do this as a pasta bake?” We love pasta bakes. It’s all one pan, no real mess, no fuss, and it all goes together as the oven preheats. I quickly just thought of a few things and estimated what it would take. To my surprise it was great! After the first time I noticed that the sauce thickens pretty well if you let it sit for 5-10 minutes before you serve it.

There’s some huge time savers with this recipe. You don’t have to wait for the water to boil. There’s no need to create a roux. I know that’s a huge flavor booster, but you really don’t lose any flavor without it. If you use a good beef stock and some salt and pepper you’ll never notice a difference. Plus it’s also worth it to get some time back. We usually go on a walk or something during the first bake. Also not to mention what a time saver there is with little to no clean up. If you use a disposable pan (sorry earth) then you can just throw that away when you’re done.

The flavor of the dish is rich due in part to the pint of heavy cream. Using beef stock instead of broth gives a depth to the flavor, so don’t swap them. A slight tang from the mustard and sweetness from the Lingonberry jelly really brings the familiar Swedish meatball flavor to the dish. To match the Ikea experience serve with a side of the Lingonberry Jelly while rearranging your living room. I promise this will be done in less time than it takes to walk through the maze that is Ikea. You’ll still end up with great Swedish meatballs and won’t have spent a ton of money or time.

Ingredients

• 1 pint heavy cream

• 32 oz beef stock (not broth)

• 1 lb wide egg noodles

• 2 Tablespoons Lingonberry Jelly

• 2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard

• 20ish frozen meatballs

• 1/4 teaspoon of salt

• 1/2 teaspoon of cracked black pepper

Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 425

2. In a 9x13 add the heavy cream, beef stock, Lingonberry jelly, Dijon mustard, and mix. Try and ensure the mustard and jelly are mixed and evenly distributed

3. Add in the noodles and do your best to spread them out and ensure most are in the liquid

4. Sprinkle the salt and pepper on top

5. Add the meatballs to the dish. It’s not important that they’re covered by any liquid.

6. Tightly cover the dish in aluminum foil and place the dish in the oven

7. Bake for 35 minutes

8. Remove from the oven, remove the foil, and place back in the oven

9. Bake for an additional 15 minutes

10. Let rest for 5-10 minutes so that the sauce will thicken

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