Great Balls of Meat, or Italian Meatballs to you and me!

I know the mid winter festivities are about to descend on us but I thought I’d slip in one final, unrelated post, before tinsel, conifer trees and that man with the white beard in the red suit, finally take over the Western World

This is my personal recipe for good old home made Italian style meatballs in a rich herb filled tomato sauce, which I cooked earlier this evening for my family. A great winter warmer, perfect after a day out in the cold but (given our recent unseasonable warmer weather here in NY) I should add that this dish works whatever the season

Ingredients for the Balls

Meatball Ingredients

1 lb ground beef chuck
1/2 cup of breadcrumbs or matzo meal (I used the latter)
A few dashes of Worcester sauce
1 tbsp of concentrated tomato puree
Half an onion and a large handful of Italian parsley – finely diced
1 large egg
Salt and pepper to season

Ingredients for the sauce

Ingredients for the tomato sauce

1 and 1/2 peeled carrots – sliced in vertically in half and diced
1 and 1/2 sticks of celery – diced in quarters
1/2 an onion finely diced
2 cloves of garlic – chopped in quarters
1 tsp each of dried: rosemary, parsley, basil, oregano and thyme
24 oz bottle of passata (strained tomatoes)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Sauteed veggies and sauce cooking

For the balls – combine the ingredients in a large bowl mixing thoroughly, then form into roughly 1.5″ diameter balls in your hand yielding around 24-28 balls from the mince mixture
For the sauce – saute all the vegetables on a medium heat in a large pot until they soften adding the dried herbs to the pan as they fry, pour in the passata and bring the sauce to the boil, then simmer on a low heat for 20 minutes, or so,to intensify and condense the sauce. Season with salt and pepper
Add the meatballs to the sauce and stir in cooking for a further 15 minutes, until they are cooked through, adding a little water to the sauce if required to cover the balls