meatballs in tomato sauce
adapted to Gordon Ramsay’s recipe
500g good quality minced beef (of course, best if you mince it yourself using good quality beef, that will give you a WAY better mince texture)
1 onion, peeled and very finely chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped
50g white breadcrumbs (ha~ you can use bread loaf ends, get the meat bit out to make crumbs. Saving pennies =))
25g Manchego cheese (or Cheddar), grated
2tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley, plus extra to finish
Sea salt and black pepper
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2tbsp olive oil
For the tomato sauce
2tbsp olive oil 1 onion, peeled and very finely chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled and finely chopped
1 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
400g fresh tomatos chopped, best plum tomatos
200ml water roughly. *you can replace 100ml water with 100ml white wine.
1-2tsp caster sugar
To serve with penne
Dried penne, salt and water
Meatballs first; mix everything together, my technique was added some water into the mince, its a Chinese way of cooking beef, just to make it a little more tender. divide the meat into balls. i’ve followed the recipe and divide into 16, but if you want Polpo style, do it like 7-8, you get massive meaty meatballs which will look so cool!
My way was instead of place the balls directly onto the plate, i wrap the plate around with cling film — balls — another cling film on top. fridge this for around 30 mins or while you prepare the sauce.
Next is the sauce. I will strongly advise to cook a little more sauce than needed, because it can get dried up and once cool it thickens.
First, salut the garic and the onion until golden. Pour in the wine and let it bubble until reduced by half. if you’re not using wine, then pour in the freshly chopped tomatoes, in the tinned tomatoes, stir fry it a bit; add water, sugar and season with salt and pepper. Simmer
*I normally would do half fresh tomatoes and half tinned tomatoes. you want the freshless as well as the liquid that the tinned tomatoes give you.
Cook the meatballs, heat the wide pan with olive pan, pan fry meatball for 5 minutes and make sure you turn them frequently so they get browned all over in balance than just two sides.
pour the tomato sauce over them and simmer together for further 10-15 minutes using medium heat, until all meatballs are cooked through.
While the meatball are simmering, cook the penne accordingly to the package. which takes roughly 10-13 minutes, perfect time for serving, but make sure you got your pan of water ready!
cook the penne until just perfect or al dente, to your preference. drain it, but careful to reserve a little water for thinning the sauce if you need to, dribble some olive oil over it, toss it up.
Plate the penne into a pasta bowl, spoon meatball and sauce over it. You can sprinkle some chopped parsley and serve with parmasen cheese. done. xoxo.
