I have done a post before about the versatility of meatballs, but these were different again and we just so good enjoyed by the children too, that I had to share. We had an over stock of courgette so que grating that and in it goes.
Ingredients:
| 500g turkey and pork mince each | Garlic powder, you can use fresh |
| Linguine | Paprika |
| ½ onion, we used red finely chopped | Mixed Herbs |
| 1 medium courgette, you can add carrot too | Coriander seeds toasted and ground |
| 1 heaped tsp dried parsley or fresh | Ground cumin |
| Passata or chopped tomatoes | Oil for cooking and coating hands when rolling balls |
| 1 garlic clove, minced | Olive oil |
| 1 milk-soaked slice of bread | 2-3 tbs Balsamic vinegar |
Method:
Grated your courgette into a bowl and put a pinch of salt over, let is stand and get on with your day. Come back to it and squeeze out all the water, I managed fine with just my hands. Add your onion, garlic and any herbs and spices you want to use. Pan fry some slices of courgette to add on top at the end and set aside till needed.
Mash the slice of bread and they goes in too, now add the mince and for the fun, combine thoroughly with your hands. You can cover the mixture and leave in the fridge till needed or form the balls immediately. I had to work quickly as I needed to get the meal prep done. Lay out some clingwrap on a flat surface this just means I can use the chopping board after without washing it immediately. Coat your hands with some oil and with a spoon get some of the mixture out and form a ball, through the meat from one hand to the other to compact it, place on the board. You can freeze them raw and put in a zip lock ounce frozen but we going to cook all of them.
Heat some vegetable oil in a heavy based pan, put the balls in a circle from 12:00 and again in a smaller circle and so on until the pan is full. I cooked them from 5 minutes turning halfway. Heat your oven to 108 degrees.
Line a baking tray with foil and get the balls out the pan into the tray. We also made some burger patties for a separate meal later in the week. Once your have seared all your balls/patties pop them in the oven for 20 minutes, again you can freeze them at this point but I used meat that had already been frozen so I needed to cook it all the way.
Once the meat is cooked remove the balls and let them cool on a rack. You can now freeze or put them in the fridge for later or use them immediately. To the same pan that you seared the meatballs in add some balsamic vinegar and let it sizzle then tip any cooking liquid from the baking tray into the hot pan with a teaspoon of brown sugar and reduce. Once it is bubbling add mixed herbs, paprika and pepper then your passata. Add any salt you want at the end so you can remove some for the babies first.
Not cook your pasta and reserve some of the cooking liquid, bring your sauce back up to heat and put the drained, cooked pasta into the hot pan using a pasta ladle and spoon toss it together. It should be bubbling so the sauce reduces if needed add some of your cooking liquid now and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. We heated our balls in the microwave a little and then added them to the pan once the sauce had thickened. Now serve, with your pasta ladle and spoon scoop up and plate and then dived the meat balls evenly at the end. We used about 5 small meatballs each and the rest are saved for baby’s meals or frozen for another time. Now top with your fried courgette, fresh basil and Parmesan cheese.
Create You Coaching 