It is really difficult to beat homemade Italian meatballs when the meatballs are just so juicy, light to the bite and covered with a homemade marinara sauce which is absolutely bursting with flavour.
Hearty Italian Meatballs
Course: Lunch, Main Course, Meat, PastaCuisine: Italian6
servings25
minutes25
minutes1
hourWith a few fresh ingredients, you can easily master the art of making the softest meatballs that are a pleasure to eat and serve to your friends at your next dinner party.
Ingredients
- For the Meatballs
1kg lean minced beef (20% fat content)
1kg minced Pork
1 medium onion (finely diced)
150 g bread crumbs
2 cloves garlic (grated)
1 tbsp basil (chopped)
1 tbsp oregano (chopped)
1/2 tsp sweet paprika
2 medium eggs
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- For the Marinara Sauce
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion (grated)
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
1 garlic clove (grated)
2 tins plum tomatoes
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Parmesan shavings to garnish the finished dish
Parmesan shavings and a few herb leaves to garnish the finished dish.
Directions
- For the Meatballs
- Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C / 400 F / Gas mark 6
- In a mixing bowl, add the milk and breadcrumbs and allow to soak for 3-4 minutes until the breadcrumbs have absorbed the milk.
- Add the minced beef, minced pork, onions, chopped herbs, eggs, Worcestershire sauce, grated garlic, sweet paprika, salt & pepper and using your hands gently combine the mixture. Do not overwork the mixture.
- Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and using a medium ice cream scoop (if available) scoop a ball of the mixture into your hand and gently roll into a ball without pressuring together too hard and lay on the baking sheet.
Continue to do this until all the mixture has been used up and set the meatballs 1 -2 inched apart on the baking sheet. - Cook in the centre of the oven for 25 minutes until evenly coloured.
For the Mariner/Tomato Sauce- Add the olive oil to a skillet pan along with the grated onion, garlic and chili flakes. Cook-out on medium heat for 2 minutes to release the flavours.
- Add the 2 tins of plum tomatoes to the pan, crushing the tomatoes with your hands to break them up. Using the tomatoes tin, add 1 tin of water and stir in.
- Bring to the boil and add the salt and pepper to taste, reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
Bringing it all together.- Add the meatballs to the mariner/tomato sauce to coat and serve with spaghetti or your favourite pasta.
- Make your dish look fantastic with a few sprigs of fresh herbs such as basil, thyme or rosemary and some parmesan shavings to finish and enjoy.
Notes
- When forming your meatballs, do not overwork them or they will become quite dense, loosely cup them in your hands to shape to ensure that they remain lovely and light to the bite. (lightly greasing your hands with olive oil helps with the forming process.)
- Tinned plum tomatoes have so much more flavour than chopped tomatoes and crushing them with your hands as you add them to the pan is a great way to ensure that you are getting the very best in flavour to your mariner/tomato sauce.
- If you prefer to pan-fry your meatballs instead of oven cooking them, simply shallow fry turning regularly until evenly cooked all over before transferring to the mariner/tomato sauce.
