Meatballs in Tomato Sauce Recipe

These moist, tender pork and veal meatballs are flavoured with bacon, basil and parmesan cheese. The meatballs are pan-fried, and then simmered in a tomato sauce. We like to serve them with fettuccine.

Serves about 5-6 people (makes 35 meatballs).

Tomato Sauce
1 tablespoon (20ml) oil
1 large onion (about 200g), peeled and very finely chopped
3 medium garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
260g (1 cup) tomato passata
400g can diced tomatoes
125ml (1/2 cup) chicken stock
2 teaspoons (10g) brown sugar
Salt and pepper, to taste

Meatballs
500g pork and veal mince (or 250g pork mince and 250g veal mince)
100g shortcut bacon, rind removed, very finely diced
100g (about 1 cup) grated parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon dried chopped basil leaves
40g (1/3 cup) packaged dry breadcrumbs
1 large egg (we use eggs with a minimum weight of 59g)
Salt and pepper, to taste
3 teaspoons (15ml) oil, for pan-frying meatballs

Fresh or dried pasta of your choice (we use 400g dried fettuccine)
Chopped fresh herbs (such as parsley or basil), to serve
Grated or shaved parmesan cheese, to serve

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for about 8 minutes, until softened. Add garlic and cook, stirring constantly, for another minute.

Remove half the onion mixture from the saucepan and set aside to cool to room temperature (this will be used in the meatballs). Leave the remaining onion mixture in the saucepan and continue with the sauce.

Add the passata, tomatoes, chicken stock, brown sugar, salt and pepper to the saucepan with the remaining onion mixture. Stir to combine.

Increase heat to high until the mixture boils and then reduce heat to low. Simmer mixture, stirring occasionally, for about 25 minutes, or until thickened to a sauce consistency.

Place pork and veal mince, bacon, parmesan cheese, dried basil, breadcrumbs, egg, salt, pepper and reserved onion mixture in a large bowl.

Using you hands, mix ingredients together until well combined. Roll level tablespoons of mixture into balls.

Heat 2 teaspoons oil in a large, deep non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Add half the meatballs and cook, turning often, for about 7 minutes, until browned. Remove meatballs from frying pan and place on a paper towel lined plate. Add remaining 1 teaspoon of oil to the pan and cook remaining meatballs. You may need to reduce the heat if the meatballs are browning too quickly (they may burn on the outside before they are cooked through).

Return the first batch of meatballs to the frying pan. Pour sauce over the meatballs.

Increase heat so the sauce comes to a boil, and then reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.

In a very large saucepan, cook pasta according to the directions on the packet. Drain cooked pasta and return it to the saucepan. Add the meatballs and sauce to the pasta and gently mix together.

Sprinkle the meatballs and pasta with fresh herbs and serve with parmesan cheese. © www.exclusivelyfood.com.au