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.

Gypsy Stew

This is a traditional Spanish stew called a gypsy stew because it uses small amounts of common, easy to obtain ingredients including those quintessentially Spanish - pork, garlic, paprika and a variety of other herbs and spices.

Guisado Gitano
(Serves 4)

Olive oil
1 large onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, crushed
800g pork loin, diced
1 red capsicum, diced
1/2 tspn chilli paste
1/2 tspn sweet paprika
1 1/2 tspn smoked paprika
2 tspn ground cumin
1/4 tspn ground cinnamon
2 tspn fresh chopped rosemary
200g dried haricot beans (soaked overnight in plenty of fresh water)
1 tin crushed tomatoes
2 cups chicken stock
1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 bunch silverbeet (leaves only, washed and shredded)

Heat a small amount of olive oil in a heavy-based saucepan and saute the onion and garlic until they are soft. Add the pork loin and capsicum and gently brown the pork. Add the chilli paste, paprika, cumin, cinnamon and rosemary and toast the spices for a minute.

Drain the haricot beans well then add them to the saucepan. Add the tomatoes and chicken stock, bring to the boil then reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered, for 90 minutes or until the beans are tender.

Add the sweet potato and simmer, covered, for 20-30 minutes (until the potato is just cooked), adding more stock if necessary to retain the liquid level. Take the stew off the heat, season well with salt and pepper and add the silverbeat. Stir it in well so it wilts slightly, then serve.