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Recipes

TrickyRicky’s meat-a-balls

Janice Tripepi submitted her husband Riccardo’s traditional ‘meat-a-ball’ recipe to secure a place in our top five family recipes in the country. She says, “This is such a simple Italian favourite; it’s inexpensive but each little meatball is made with love. We eat them to celebrate birthdays, christenings, good days and even those sad days when we say goodbye to special people. Food should be shared with love - and pasta is the universal language of culinary love.”

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 1 hour

Ingredients

1kg
3 large chopped
4 finely chopped garlic cloves
½ cup of finely grated Parmesan
3 slices of bread– crusts off and soaked in milk
1/2 a cup pf chopped, fresh parsley
to season, salt and pepper
flour to dust the little balls (gluten intolerant could use rice flour or cornflower)
3 eggs
3 finely chopped, large onions
4 finely chopped carrots
2 finely chopped sticks of celery
8 finely chopped garlic cloves
Dry white wine, enough to cover the onions – I used Springfield’s Life from Stone
2 cubes of chicken stock
1kg halved cherry or baby rosa tomatoes
1 large can of Italian peeled tomatoes (use your hands to squish them in a separate bowl. Watch out for the squirting!)
1-2 finely chopped chillies
olive oil

Method

In a heavy bottomed pot, brown the garlic and chilli, then add the onion and brown. Add the carrot and celery and give it a stir to combine the flavours.

Cover the mixture with dry white wine and cook off all of the alcohol. Add fresh tomatoes and bring to the boil, then add the squished tomatoes and bring to the boil.

Pop in your meatballs and simmer on a medium heat for as long as possible – at least an hour. If you can make this a day in advance it’s even better! (All pasta sauces benefit from a night in the fridge.)

When your sauce is cooked the oil will rise to the surface and be clear and red as opposed to orange and foamy.

Season and serve with pasta.

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