RICOTTA AND OREGANO MEATBALLS

This dish is perfect for making it ahead and just reheated the following day. It actually helps develop the flavours and it is even more delicious. The ricotta makes the meatballs very light and my husband reckons it would be the perfect dish to have with pasta. If you do so, make the meatballs smaller. This time it was our dinner for our Pure protein diet day, but I'd love to eat them next to oven cooked chips and a salad. The flavours are amazing.
See the end of the page to see a variation using the same recipe but on macaroni.

INGREDIENTS

60ml olive oil
2 large onions, chopped finely
4 garlic cloves, crushed
20g oregano leaves, chopped, plus extra to serve
1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
500ml chicken stock
500g pork and veal mince
100g breadcrumbs (from 3-4 slices of crustless white bread) or bought
250g ricotta
60g parmesan
1 large egg
20g Italian parsley, chopped
salt & freshly ground black pepper

METHOD:
First make the tomato sauce. Put 2 tablespoons of oil into a frypan and place on a medium high heat. Add half the onion, half the garlic and half the oregano and cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring until the onions have softened without taking on colour.

Add the tomatoes, half the stock, 1/2 teaspoon of salt (if necessary) and some black pepper.

Reduce the temperature to medium and cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring from time to time, to thicken the sauce.

Meanwhile, make the meatballs. Place the remaining onion, garlic and oregano in a large bowl along with the mince, breadcrumbs, ricotta, parmesan, egg, parsley, 3/4 teaspoon of salt and some black pepper.

Using your hands, mix everything together.

Divide the mixture and shape into 12 balls.

Put 1 tablespoon of oil into a large frying pan and, when hot, add the meatballs. Sear for 8 minutes, turning throughout and adding more oil to the pan, then transfer to a separate plate.

Gently lower the meatballs into the sauce and pour over enough of the remaining stock so that the meatballs are almost covered. Add a little water, if you need, to make up the liquid.

Place on a medium low heat and simmer very gently, covered, for 30 minutes.

To thicken the sauce - it should have a consistency of a thick pasta sauce - remove the lid towards the end of cooking and increase the temperature a little.

Remove from the heat and set aside for at least 10 minutes. Add extra oregano and serve.

Serves 4

Delicious when served with oven cooked potatoes.

VARIATION:
Macaroni with ricotta meatballs

My husband mentioned that the meatballs could be very good with pasta, so I made them with macaroni. They were delicious. I used the same recipe but when it was time to make the meatball, I made them quite smaller. I used about 1 tablespoon of mince for each one.

I then followed the recipe as above. I cooked the meatballs in a frypan in two batches...

and then added them to the sauce..

and covered them with the rest of the chicken stock....

and covered the pan and simmered for about 15 minutes .....

finishing with about 10 more minutes uncovered to thicken the sauce. In the meantime, I boiled water in a large saucepan and cooked 500g macaroni until al dente. To serve, I put some of the pasta on a big bowl and added the meatballs and sauce on top. I also sprinkled it with a bit of parmesan cheese.

They were delicious!! It serves 4 people as a main.

Comments

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