Italian meatballs

The key to these great Italian meatballs is the combination of the veal and pork mince. The mustard gives them a little zing too. Double this great recipe to make sure you have more for another meal. The meatballs without the sauce are also perfect for lunch boxes.

ITALIAN MEATBALLS

Prep: 10 mins
Cook 45 mins
Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 20 ml/ 1 tbsp of olive oil
• 1 brown/yellow onion, finely diced
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed or grated
• 500g / 1 lb of veal & pork mince
• ½ cup of breadcrumbs
• 1 tbsp of dijon mustard
• 4 sprigs of flat leaf parsley, finely
• 1 egg
• ½ tsp of salt
• 20ml / 1 tbsp of olive oil, extra
• ½ cup of plain flour
• 800g / 28oz of tinned/canned diced tomatoes
• 200ml / ¾ cup of water
• pasta of your choice
• grated parmesan, to serve

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan, and cook the onion and garlic on a low heat for around 5 minutes. Do not brown the onion. Set aside to cool.
2. Remove the onion mixture from the pan, and keep half for the meat mixture and the other half for the sauce.
3. Place meat breadcrumbs, mustard, parsley, egg, salt, pepper and half of the cooled onion in a large bowl and mix.
4. Use your hand to roll mixture into 3cm/1 inch balls.
5. Place flour on a plate or baking dish, and roll the meatballs to coat with flour. Dust off excess flour.
6. Heat additional olive oil in the frying pan and then brown the meatballs. You may need to do them in batches.
7. Add the remaining onion from step 2, the tomatoes and water to the meatballs, cover and simmer for 25 minutes. If doubling the recipe, allow half to cool to room temperature before freezing for later use.
8. While meatballs are cooking, cook the pasta in a large pot.
9. Strain the pasta, top with meatballs and sauce, and sprinkle with parmesan.

TIP
Meatballs are great in a sandwich the next day if you have leftovers. If you can’t find veal and pork mince, use pork mince (ground pork) instead.