Italian Meatballs

May 22, 2024

Dinner, Lunch

Intermediate

0

50 Minutes

Ingredients Directions Nutritional Information

Anyone who doesn’t like Italian meatballs needs to call a 1800 helpline now. My girls absolutely love these, so much so that I always make a double batch and freeze them for when I hear, ‘Dad, can you make Italian meatballs?’. This recipe has been passed down through seven generations … actually, I learned this from an elderly woman in Venice who kept saying to keep it simple and don’t add milk. Whack your apron on (purely for aesthetic reasons) and make this recipe while talking to yourself in an Italian accent. Meat Balls recipe.

TIPS
To keep the meatballs nice and hot, fill a thermos with boiling water and close the lid so the internal lining of the stainless steel heats up. Let it sit for 10 minutes before replacing the hot water with the hot food.
Cooked meatballs can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 3–4days.

Metric

Ingredients

250 g

pork mince 250 g of beef mince

1

egg

118 ml

breadcrumbs

118 ml

grated parmesan

5 ml

dried oregano

2

garlic cloves, crushed

2.5 ml

sea salt

1/2

brown onion, finely chopped

30 ml

extra-virgin olive oil

118 ml

basil leaves, finely chopped

Italian Tomato Sauce

30 ml

extra-virgin olive oil

2

garlic cloves, crushed

2 x 400 g

cans diced tomatoes

30 ml

tomato paste

5 ml

sea salt

Ingredients

8.8 ounces

pork mince 250 g of beef mince

1

egg

1/2 cup

breadcrumbs

1/2 cup

grated parmesan

1 teaspoon

dried oregano

2

garlic cloves, crushed

1/2 teaspoon

sea salt

1/2

brown onion, finely chopped

2 tablespoons

extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup

basil leaves, finely chopped

Italian Tomato Sauce

2 tablespoons

extra-virgin olive oil

2

garlic cloves, crushed

14 ounces

cans diced tomatoes

2 tablespoons

tomato paste

1 teaspoon

sea salt

Directions

Let’s get our sauce on first, so grab a large deep frying pan and put it on medium heat with the olive oil.

When the oil has heated up, drop in the garlic and cook for 3–4 minutes while stirring, until it becomes lightly golden. Stir through the diced tomatoes and tomato paste.

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Add 125 ml (1/2 cup) of water to one of the tomato cans and swish it around to make sure the water collects any left behind tomatoes, then pour this into your second can and do the same, finally pour the tomato water into the pan and give it a good stir.

Add the salt and stir again. Reduce the heat to low and pop a lid on it.

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Now let’s make our meatballs. Place all of the ingredients except the oil and basil in a mixing bowl and give them a really good mix with your hands – the idea is to break up all the mince and let the other ingredients combine really well.

I find that it’s better to take the mince out of the fridge an hour prior – this saves your fingers from freezing and it also makes the mince easier to break up.

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In a separate large frying pan, add the olive oil and let it heat up. Using wet hands, roll the mince to make whatever size meatballs will fit in your kids’ lunchboxes – I usually work with 2 tablespoons of mixture per meatball.

Drop the meatballs straight into the pan. Turn the meatballs as required to brown them on all sides – I like them to have a nice char (they’ll soften again later in the sauce). Once they’re cooked on the outside and holding their shape – around 5–6 minutes – drop them into the simmering sauce and cook for a further 15 minutes with the lid on. For the last minute of cooking add the finely chopped basil and gently mix through.

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Allow the meatballs and sauce to cool before placing in an airtight container in the fridge.

To reheat these, simply zap a serving of 2–3 meatballs and sauce in the microwave for 2 minutes in the morning and put them straight into a pre-heated thermos.

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