A SIMPLE DISH WITH WITH TONS OF FLAVOUR
Serves 4
INGREDIENTS:
Tomato Sauce
400g Chopped Tomatoes
3 Crushed Garlic Cloves
1 tbsp Tomato Puree
Fresh Ginger, Finely Chopped (thickness of a £1 coin)
1/3 Fresh Medium Chilli (finely chopped)
Hand Full of Fresh Basil Leaves
Meatballs
500g Minced Beef (not lean)
2 Pieces of Bread (blitz in a mixer and make fine bread crumbs)
2 tsp Dried Oregano
1tsp Smoked Paprika
1 Free Range Egg
6 Large Basil Leaves
300g Good Quality Pasta (I use Tesco Finest Pennoni Rigati)
Parmesan Cheese
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
WHAT TO DO:
In a bowl put the minced beef, oregano, paprika, egg (beaten), basil leaves (finely chopped), and bread crumbs. Using your hands mix together the ingredients well, the egg does make the mixture squelchy (love that word!) but this helps the meatballs stay together and not fall apart.
HANDY TIP:
After trying different recipes i have found that breadcrumbs help keep the meatballs moist, as well as using un-lean beef.
Roll the mixture into golf ball size balls and place on a tray (you should get about 12 meatballs from this mixture) cover with clingfilm and put in the fridge (best kept in fridge for couple of hours at least to firm up. (If you havent got the time don't worry, it should still stay together).
In a pan over a medium heat pour a splash of olive oil, put in the garlic, chopped chili, and finely chopped ginger (don't worry to much on how finely these are chopped or crushed as you will be sieving the sauce later on). Gently fry for 5 minutes, stiring so ingredients do not colour or catch. Once the flavours have released in the oil pour in the chopped tomatoes and stir, add the tomato puree, rip and tare the basil leaves and add to the sauce. Simmer the sauce for around 10 minutes so the ingredients infuse.
Sieve the sauce into another pan, making sure you squeeze every last bit of liquid out of the sieve. leave the sauce to one side.
Handy Tip:
I have found that by sieving the sauce the flavours are infused more intensely and not everyone appreciates biting into ginger or garlic!
In a frying pan drizzle a little olive oil on a medium heat, place the meatballs into the pan and brown (by browning this helps keeps the moisture inside of the meatballs)make sure all sides of the meatballs are browned, keep in the pan for around 10 minutes moving occasionally so not to burn.
In another pan bring to the boil a pan of water and cook the pasta, while doing this re-heat the sauce (do this gently). When heated, put the meatballs into the sauce so all the meatballs are covered.
Handy Tip:
Put some olive oil and salt in the water when cooking the pasta, the oil stops the pasta sticking to each other and the pan, and the salt flavours the pasta while cooking.
Once all elements are ready, put the pasta onto your serving bowls, (I drizzle olive oil over the pasta) spoon the meatballs on top of the pasta and grate some Parmesan cheese over the top of the meatballs. Finally, place a few basil leaves on top.
Great with some Italian bread
Photo's by Matt Grice
No comments:
Post a Comment