My best meatballs in veggie sauce
This is something that I’ve been making for a long, long time. I make them at home and I often had it on the menu at my old Italian trattoria. Because they are amazing! It’s a very humble dish and it pleases anyone who it comes in contact with.
If your kids are funny with meat (one of my girls can be, I think it’s the chewing?) Then these meatballs are going to go down very well, trust me!
Now, I’m not a believer in hiding veggies for kids but in a dish that isn’t generally based on veggies, then we still need to add em right? Well this veggie sauce is a hit with the fussy ones and they wont even know how healthy it is.
I like to combine pork and beef for these, but either or is fine. The crumbs in the mix will assist in deliciously light meatballs and all of those herbs are going to amp up the flavour.
Hope you and your hungry monkeys enjoy these as much as we do!
Bon appetito!
Recipe serves 4-6
Prep time : 30 minutes
Cook time : 1 hour
Ingredients:
250g pork mince
250g beef mince
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tbs dried oregano
1/2 cup gluten free bread crumbs
1 large egg
big handful of Italian parsley, chopped
small handful of oregano, leaves picked and chopped
60ml extra virgin olive oil
1 brown onion, finely chopped
3 celery stalks, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely grated
1 zucchini, grated
4 cloves garlic, crushed
800g good quality crushed tomatoes
3 stalks basil
sea salt
cracked pepper
Method:
For the meatballs, combine the mince, herbs and spices, crumbs and egg and a good pinch of sea salt and cracked pepper. Use your hands to massage all the ingredients together and roll into golf ball sized balls. Wetting your hands occasionally will help to form nice smooth meatballs.
Allow to chill in the fridge for around half an hour while you prepare your sauce.
For the sauce, heat 3 tbs of oil in a heavy based saucepan and gently fry the onions until they’re opaque and softened around 5 minutes, then add in the celery, carrots, zucchini and garlic and cook for a further 5 minutes until all the vegetables are tender.
Pour in the tomatoes and half fill the tin with water, rinsing any sauce left in the tin and add that in as well. Add the basil stalks and season to taste with sea salt and cracked pepper if using.
Bring to a simmer on low to medium heat with a lid.
Meanwhile, heat 1 tbs oil in a large non stick frypan over medium heat and brown the meatballs in batches until golden all over and gently add them to the sauce.
Simmer the meatballs in the sauce for around 45 minutes.
Serve hot.
