Made with love, this heavenly meatballs recipe will fill your heart and tummy!
Spaghetti and meatballs are certainly a family favourite that guarantees the plate will be licked clean by the kids. Rich and flavourful Italian tomato sauce served with moist meatballs and lip-smacking spaghetti – what’s not to love?
For the perfect spaghetti and meatballs, I will let you in on a few secrets I have learnt over the years:
Firstly, use a good quality non-stick pan. When I make my spaghetti and meatballs my preferred pan is the Circulon Total Stainless Steel Sauteuse 30cm 5.7L. Meatballs are notorious for falling apart, but Circulon's ultra-durable non-stick surface eliminates this risk to ensure your meatballs remain in one piece. The non-stick surface also allows you to minimise the use of oil for a healthier recipe, and the Circulon is a nice, large size to cook up a generous number of meatballs for leftovers the next day. This sauteuse also stands out as it has unique raised steel circles located at the base of the pan. This intelligent design protects the non-stick surface as well as the pan from being scratched by metal utensils – genius!Secondly, the texture of your meatballs could make or break the dish. The key is for your meatballs to obtain as much moisture as possible to be juicy and tender. Using a mixture of pork and veal mince works a treat every time. The combination of the two marries the perfect amount of fat content with flavour.
Also, don’t skip the egg or bread when making your meatballs. Both ingredients play an essential role in binding the ingredients so that they don’t fall apart. Soaking the fresh bread in milk will give you a juicier outcome than using dry breadcrumbs. Don’t be shy when massaging the meatball mix, it’s important the soaked bread thoroughly combines for the best outcome of texture and flavour.
Using a good quality passata is also imperative for a rich, flavourful sauce. Passata is a smooth puree made using fresh, in season tomatoes that have been cooked down into an easy-to-use sauce. Look out for vibrant coloured passata to ensure the tomatoes have endured minimal simmering and are in season. Also, check to ensure the bottle has no additives such as herbs or sugars – this gives you the ultimate control of balancing and flavouring the dish just the way you like it. You can of course make your own passata at home and there are certainly plenty of recipes online to choose from.
Reheating your spaghetti and meatballs tastes just as good if not even better the next day. To store your dish, simply pour the spaghetti directly into the sauce of your pan and pop the lid on to refrigerate overnight. Reheat the meatballs on the stovetop with the lid on, stirring a couple of times. The stay cool handles on the Circulon makes taking the pan on and off the heat as easy and safe as can be. Then, plate the saucy spaghetti and top with meatballs. A good quality Parmigiano Reggiano is always a good idea.
Pork and Fennel Baked Bocconcini Meatballs Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1kg pork and veal mince
- 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 1 celery stalk
- 2 golden shallots
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 egg
- 2 - 3 pieces of bread
- 500ml milk
- 1 glug of extra virgin olive oil
- 5 sprigs thyme
- 200ml red wine
- 700ml Passata
- 2 tablespoon tomato paste
- 500gm dried spaghetti
- 200gm tub of bocconcini
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- Fresh basil to garnish
Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.
2. Put a separate pot of water onto the stove top and bring to the boil.
3. Lightly toast fennel seeds in a dry frying pan until fragrant.
4. Soak the bread in the milk for 5 minutes, squeeze out the milk.
5. Finely dice the celery, golden shallots and garlic.
6. Add half of the celery, golden shallots and garlic to the bowl along with the mince, fennel seeds, egg, soaked bread, salt and pepper.
7. Combine the ingredients well by massaging with your hands then roll the mince mixture into even size balls.
8. In a large, good quality non-stick frying pan, sear all sides of the meatballs.
9. Remove the meatballs with tongs and place onto a plate.
10. Add a glug of extra virgin olive oil to the pan and add the remaining celery, garlic and shallots, sauteing until translucent.
11. Deglaze the pan with the red wine, cooking it off until completely reduced.
12. Pour in the passata and tomato paste.
13. Add the leaves from the sprigs of thyme and more salt and pepper to taste.
14. Put the meatballs back into the pan and simmer until the sauce has thickened.
15. Evenly distribute the bocconcini onto the top of the passata and sprinkle with fresh basil leaves.
16. At this point, add your dried spaghetti to the pot of boiling water cooking until al dente.
17. Put the pan into the oven until the bocconcini has melted – this will take about 15-20 minutes.
18. Serve spaghetti up onto plates and cover in your beautiful, rich tomato sauce topped with meatballs.
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