Tuscan Meatballs in Tomato and Red Wine Sauce with Spaghetti

Hello Dear Reader,

This is another lovely recipe I stumbled upon by accident and I am so very glad I did, as always I have tinkered with the original recipe to make it my own and to reflect the ingredients available. The meatballs are super soft but still hold together well because of the ricotta and the bacon and parmesan add a beautiful depth of flavour. You can bake the meatballs way ahead of time and freeze if necessary until the day they are needed. And the simple sauce ingredients are just bunged into a pot and let blip away for 30 minutes or so, get that sauce and meatballs together, boil some spaghetti and voila dinner is done.

I doubled the original recipe so you could easily half this recipe for a smaller crowd, my idea was to have lots of leftovers for when I was very busy during the week, and it worked a treat.

Ingredients for the Tuscan Meatballs, clockwise from top right-1 kg of pork mince, 3 teaspoons of dried Thyme, 1 tub of ricotta (375 gram) 2 smallish onions, finely diced, 2 eggs, lightly beaten, 6 rashers of bacon, diced, 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese, a good handful of parsley, finely chopped, 200 grams of fresh breadcrumbs (the ones in the photo were freshly blitzed in Thelma the Thermi so there looks like there is a lot because they are really fluffy)

In a very large bowl, add all ingredients and using your hands, mix everything together really well

Roll the pork mince mixture into just smaller than golf ball size, as you can see it makes a truck load. As I rolled them, I place them on foiled and greased baking trays and baked them for 30 minutes at 200 C flipping them half way through to brown both sides. I then let them cool and froze them till I needed them later in the week. After they are baked you just pop them in the waiting tomato and red wine sauce. 

For the Red Wine and Tomato Sauce-clockwise from top right-1 1/2 cups red wine, 1 1/2 teaspoons dried Thyme, 3 tablespoons tomato paste, 3 tablespoons brown sugar, 1 sprig rosemary, stripped and chopped finely, 3 small or 2 large garlic cloves, grated on a microplane, 3 x cans crushed tomatoes (rinse each can out with about 1/3 cup of water and add this to the pan as well) and 2 tablespoons Balsamic vinegar

Throw everything into a big pot, let bubble away for 30 minutes or so

Until nicely thickened. Then add the meatballs and let meatballs warm through thoroughly. Serve with Spaghetti or what every pasta takes your fancy

Grate over extra Parmesan

Easy, kinda quick or as slow as you like, freeze the meatballs, don't freeze the meatballs, it is totally up to you. The main thing is... it is so delicious, so moorish, so comforting, you just must make these, they are truly the best Italian-fied meatballs I have every tasted. The end.

Have the loveliest of days

💗Fi

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