Italian Meatballs

Meatballs are such a crowd-pleaser, and my Italian Meatball recipe takes it to the next level with the inclusion of chunks of mozzarella and finished with a sprinkle of basil. Comfort food at its best!

This recipe that warms the cockles of my heart every time I make it. In the depths of winter, it is one of my favourite Sunday afternoon meals. It is a little time-consuming, but the end result is well worth the effort. I love eating this dish over a bed of rocket (as I do with bolognese) or with a simple rocket salad. The carb lovers in my family love it with spaghetti.

I was introduced to the wonders of the ice cream scoop for all things balls and cookies a few years ago. They make the process of making meatballs far easier, less messy and the meatballs are a consistent size so cook evenly and the finished dish looks better. I have three sizes, alternating depending on what I am cooking. For meatballs, I use the small.

Meatball preparation using a small ice cream or cookie scoop.

To Fry or Bake Meatballs?

Traditionally meatballs are cooked in a skillet. I have found when using almond flour to bind, if you shake the meatballs to cook on all sides, the meatballs can fall apart with the movement of the skillet. To counter this, I tested cooking the meatballs on a baking tray in the oven and have not gone back. Some recipes for baked meatballs call for spraying the meatballs with oil before baking. I have done this, but I also find baking them without oil is fine too. If you do spray, use a good quality olive oil spray without additives.

A time for quality tinned tomatoes

The glue that binds this disk is the tomato sauce. So, I recommend using the best quality tinned tomatoes - there is a difference. Jamie Oliver recommends using 'quality Italian plum tomatoes'. He also recommends leaving them cook whole so as to not release the slightly bitter taste of the pips. I have found the Mutti brand of finely chopped tomatoes works well, resulting in a lovely rich sauce. This also means I don't need to cook the sauce as long to get the rich flavour, which is a bonus when I am in a hurry.

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Italian Meatballs

Yield: 6

Author: Lee Newcombe

Prep time: 1 H & 30 MCook time: 40 MinTotal time: 2 H & 10 M

This recipe is from my 'Tried and Tested' folder, with this page featuring many splash stains, which are a testament to the number of times I've made it! It's one of my favourite Sunday afternoon meals. Don't be discouraged by the process; it's well worth the effort!

Ingredients

Tomato Sauce

• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 3 tsp dried oregano or Italian mix
• 4 x 400g tin tomatoes
• 1 tsp red wine vinegar

Meatballs

• 1.5 kg minced beef (or combo beef, veal, pork)
• 1 cup almond flour (or 3 slices of bread, crumbed in blender)
• 3 tbsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• Pinch chilli flakes
• 2 tbsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped
• 1 egg yolk
• Salt to season

To assemble

• 2 handfuls basil, torn
• 80g mozzarella, chopped in chunks
• 80g parmesan cheese, grated

Instructions

Tomato Sauce

1. Add the olive oil to a heavy-based pan, add onion and garlic and gently cook till the onion is transparent. Add the oregano and tomatoes. Mix and bring to a boil, then simmer for an hour or so.

Meatballs

1. Add the mince, almond flour, oregano, cumin, chilli, rosemary, egg yolk and salt to a large bowl and mix well. I like to use an ice cream scoop to shape the meatballs, but if you don’t have one, use wet hands to shape them into inch-sized balls.
2. Set the oven to 200C.
3. Cook the meatballs until well browned, either in a large skillet or in the oven. When using the almond flour to bind, I prefer to bake the meatballs in the oven as they can fall apart with lots of movement in the skillet.

To assemble

1. Add the meatballs to a large skillet or baking dish. Stir a handful of the torn basil through the tomato sauce, and add it to the meatballs and gently mix. Slot in between the meatballs mozzarella and grate the parmesan on top (I didn't add the parmesan in the photographed version). Bake in the oven for 20 - 30 minutes till the mozzarella is golden.
2. Serve and enjoy!

Nutrition Facts

Calories

1030.42

Fat

76.83 g

Sat. Fat

25.54 g

Carbs

28.91 g

Fiber

8.96 g

Net carbs

19.95 g

Sugar

13.59 g

Protein

60.14 g

Sodium

853.47 mg

Cholesterol

229.5 mg

Please note: Nutrition information is to be used as a guide only.