Meatballs are usually made by simply pan-frying lightly seasoned meat and serving it with some brown sauce. However, they can be so much more exciting. Here, using Italian influences, we cook the meatballs in tomato sauce, and the meat itself is flavored with several interesting ingredients. Initial pan-frying is just to brown the surface of the meat - good for flavor.
4 servings:
1 kg/2 lb. ground meat
1 handful of bread crumbles
1 tbsp freshly chopped rosemary 1 tbsp thyme, leaves picked
1/2 red chili, deseeded and chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 shallot, chopped
1 egg
1 tbsp mustard
salt, pepper
For tomato sauce:
2 cans of passed tomatoes
2 sprigs of thyme
1 chopped onion 1 garlic clove, crushed
olive oil
a handful of fresh basil leaves
Topping: 1 piece of mozzarella cheese
To make the tomato sauce, sauté onion and garlic in some olive oil for 3 minutes. Add tomatoes and thyme and cook for 20 minutes on medium heat. Add basil leaves at the end and remove from the heat. Preheat the oven to 200 C/390 F. Make the meatballs by mixing all the ingredients in a bowl and forming meatballs with wet hands. Fry them briefly in a very hot pan in olive oil so they just get browned on the surface. Now, throw them into an oven proof pan, cover with tomato sauce and put in the oven for about 15 minutes or until they are cooked through. At the end of baking, put some pieces of mozzarella cheese on the meatballs so the cheese melts just as the meat gets cooked. Serve with rice. You can sprinkle some olive oil on top, or some red wine vinegrette.