This is another dish of mine that Pietro loves dearly. When he was little, he used to come into the kitchen before dinner and snatch a meatball (or two) from the pot.
IngredientiYou will need for… well, according to this recipe, it will be 24 meatballs. Now, of course, it depends on how much appetite your guests bring. In theory, leftover meatballs store well in the fridge. Theoretically.
For the meatballs you will need:
- 220 g ground beef (preferably lean, the sausage brings the fat)
- 165 g salsiccie (sausages)
- 30 g breadcrumbs
- 1 teaspoon grated parmesan cheese
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon of chopped parsley
- 1 pinch of dried oregano
- 1 pinch of grated nutmeg
- salt to taste
- black pepper to taste
- Extra virgin olive oil to taste
- some parsley (you probably have it in the kitchen window anyway)
For the sauce you will need:
- 400 g tomato puree
- 50 ml water
- salt to taste
- dried oregano to taste
- black pepper to taste
Cut the sausages lengthwise and remove the sausage meat from the skin. Then press the sausage meat nice and wide with the knife and mix it with the minced meat. Season with oregano, minced meat and chopped parsley. Add parmesan, breadcrumbs and egg and knead everything with your hands. Add salt and pepper and continue kneading until you get a uniform mixture. Then form small balls from the dough. One ball should weigh about 20 grams and in total, with this amount of ingredients, there should be 24 meatballs. But if they get a little bigger, smaller or more inconsistent, that’s not a bad thing either – at least then you can see that they were made by hand!
Fry the meatballs in hot olive oil for a few minutes until they are nicely browned on the outside. This is important for the roasted flavors! Now add the tomato paste, possibly some more water if the sauce is too thick, and of course salt and pepper and let everything simmer on low heat for 15-20 minutes. Then season with oregano and the dish is ready!
The meatballs go very well with spinach and fried polenta. Pietro always liked it! The spinach unfortunately not.
