I threw in a few sage leaves from the bush outside the back door.

These were duly quartered and thrown in the pan and left to stew for quarter of an hour. The pan was then seasoned with a few slices of dried red chilli, salt and pepper.

I added a couple of tins of chopped tomatoes and a pinch of sugar and then left it for an hour.

Whilst all that was cooking down I made the meatballs. The minced pork went into a bowl together with a good couple of handfuls of fine breadcrumbs, more chopped red chilli, some roasted and ground fennel seeds and a good seasoning of salt and pepper. The hands then went in squeezing the mixture between my fingers until all the seasonings were well amalgamated.

A couple of eggs were then added to the mix and I did some more squeezing and then shaped the mixture in twenty golf ball sized lumps which were placed onto a greased baking tray. The tomato sauce still needed some cooking so I went back upstairs and finished painting around the wardrobe.

The tomato sauce was put through a fine sieve and I added some basil and left it to keep bubbling away. The sheet of meatballs went into a hot oven for twenty five minutes. I turned them once about halfway through.

The meatballs then went into a shallow pan into which I poured about half of the tomato sauce. They poached in that whilst I made a pan of spaghetti.

The recipe for the meatballs came from the Polpo cookbook. There will be enough left tomorrow night although I won’t be here. The kids will finish them off.

Mid Sunday night now – listening to The Unthanks.