The Best Meatballs Ever

These meatballs have been evolving for as long as I've been cooking. Originally they were basic meat-garlic-egg-breadcrumb meatballs but they've slowly morphed into Italian pork meatballs that are packed with flavour.



The Best Meatballs Ever
Serves 4

1/4 cup olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
80g pine nuts
4 large garlic cloves, crushed
500g pork mince
1 egg
65g breadcrumbs
5g basil leaves, roughly chopped
30g parsley, roughly chopped
1 1/2 tspn fennel seeds, ground
200g ricotta
1 lemon, zested
1 quantity of fairly plain pasta sauce (either from a jar or homemade)
350g pasta

In a small saucepan, heat the olive oil and gently fry the onion and pine nuts until the onion has turned translucent. Add the garlic and cook for a further minute, then remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

Combine the pork mince, egg, breadcrumbs, basil, parsley, fennel, ricotta and zest in a large bowl with the onion mixture and a decent amount of salt and pepper.

Roll two tablespoons of the mixture into a ball and flatten it slightly (to make it easier to cook!) Do this for the rest of the mixture.

Heat some olive oil in a large non-stick fry pan and fry the meatballs until they are golden on the outside and cooked all the way through.

Cook the pasta until al dente and tip the pasta sauce over the meatballs to warm up.

Serve the pasta with the saucey meatballs on top and enjoy the best meatballs ever.