Introduction
We recently had a meal at a local Italian restaurant, the meat balls were amazing and I decided to see if could create a similar dish at home. I wanted amazing meat balls, what makes a meat ball amazing you might ask? For me its a meat ball that is full of flavour, falls apart and is soft and moist. Following a lot of research I found that many people have their preferences and tactics for producing that amazing meat ball however this recipe did it for me and I am happy to share it here today.
I’m using minced pork and minced beef, this gives the amazing meat balls a better texture as the fat from the pork keeps the balls moist and you get a combination of flavours.
Homemade pasta is not something I take on very much due to not having much time which probably just means I’m lazy. I have this view as whenever I do make my own pasta I enjoy the process and I love the result so I should really make more of an effort!
Ingredients
For the meat balls
- 500g Minced pork
- 500g Minced beef
- 2 slices of bread crusts off and blended into fine breadcrumbs
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
- 1 tablespoon chilli powder
- 1 tablespoon mixed herbs
- 1 egg
The tomato sauce
- 1 diced onion
- 1 diced pepper
- 2 garlic cloves
- 500ml tomato pasatta
- Handful of herbs – i used fresh parsley and basil
For the pasta
- 2 eggs
- 200g flour
Instructions
The Pasta
To make the pasta, put the flour into a large bowl and add the 2 eggs. Using your fingers mix the flour and eggs together. Keep working the flour and eventually it will come together. It took me about 10 minutes to get the mixture to become a smooth ball of dough. You can do this in a electric mixer but you might over mix the ingredients so its worth spending the time doing it by hand.
Your dough should look like this.
The dough needs to rest, i wrapped it in clingfilm and put it in the fridge for 4 hours before taking it out again to bring it back to room temperature. The dough needs to be at room temperature before you roll it out. You can leave it to rest for 30 minutes before using if you don’t have time to put it in the fridge.
To make the meat balls put all of the meat ball ingredients into a bowl and mix together.
When the mixture is thoroughly mixed together break off 50g pieces and roll them into balls. I managed to get 20 meat balls, this is too many for 2 of us however it means we have some ready for a rerun next week.
Put the balls in the fridge to harden up.
Once the balls are rested put them in the oven for 20 minutes at 180C. The balls will cook and brown off and is a healthy alternative to frying.
Whilst the balls are in the oven make the sauce.
Fry the onions and pepper on a medium heat until they are cooked through. When the veggies are cooked add the garlic, don’t add the garlic too early as it could catch and burn and create a bitter taste. After 2 minutes add the passata to the onions, pepper and garlic, and heat gently.
When the meat balls are cooked take them out of the oven and add them to the tomato sauce.
If you have a pasta machine roll out the pasta and create your tagliatelle. The pasta will dry out very quickly so have some boiling water ready and get the pasta in as quickly as possible.
The pasta will only take a couple of minutes to cook then its ready for serving. Add the fresh herbs, add a couple of spoonfulls of the pasta water into the pasta sauce before dishing up. Grate some cheese on top and serve.
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