Lunch: Shortcut Sausage Meatballs

Ingredients

1 pound hot or sweet Italian sausages
2 tablespoons garlic-flavored oil
4 fat or 6 spindly scallions, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 cup white wine or vermouth
Two 14-ounce cans diced tomatoes, plus water to rinse 1/2 can
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper, to taste
Chopped fresh parsley, to serve (optional)

Instructions

Squeeze the sausage meat from the sausages and roll small cherry-tomato-sized meatballs out of it, putting them onto a plastic wrap-lined baking sheet as you go. Your final tally should be around 40. Heat the oil in a large, heavy pan or flameproof Dutch oven and add the meatballs, frying them until golden; as they become firmer, nudge them up in the pan to make room for the rest, if you can't fit them all in at first. When all the meatballs are in the pan and browned, add the scallions and oregano and stir about gently. Add the wine or vermouth and diced tomatoes, then fill half of one of the empty cans with cold water and tip it into the other empty can, then into the pan. The can-to-can technique is just my way of making sure you rinse out as much of the tomato residue as possible. Put in the bay leaves and let the pan come to a fast simmer. Let cook like this, uncovered, for 20 minutes, until the sauce has thickened slightly and the meatballs are cooked through. Check the sauce for seasoning, adding some salt and pepper, if you like. During this time you can cook whatever you fancy to go with the meatballs, whether it be pasta, rice, whatever. Once the meatballs are ready, you can eat them immediately or let them stand, off the heat but still on the stove, for 15 minutes. The sauce will thicken up a bit on standing. Should your diners be other than children who balk at green bits, sprinkle with parsley on serving.