Brilliant Beef Meatballs with tomato and herb sauce for your Food Prep this weekend.

This meal is a family fav, the kids will love it and the adults can’t pass up on it either. Its warm comfort food perfect for the colder winter days. I also make a large batches and freeze down with the sauce. This makes for a quick, cheap and easy meal for when time is restricted and beats the take away options.

Number of serves: 6-8

Time to prep and cook: 30 min

Skill level required: Beginners (therefore good for the Hubby’s or in my case….even Rach can put this one together, great meal for kids to get involve with as well)

Average cost: $15

Note: Fresh is best, if you can get your hands on fresh herbs please use them. However I try to make these recipes as easy as possible  and use general ingredients that you should have in your pantry and mixed herbs is a must in every household!

Brilliant Beef Meatballs with tomato and herb sauce

Ingredients

Meat balls

• 500g beef mince
• 1 onion
• 2 cloves garlic (or crushed in a jar)
• 1 tsp cumin
• ¼ tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp mixed herbs (or oregano, basil)
• Salt and pepper

Tomato Sauce

• 2 Tbls olive oil
• 2 diced onions
• 2 cloves of garlic (or crushed in a jar)
• 2 tsp mixed herbs
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 cup beef stock
• 700ml pasata (or tomato puree)

How to do it:

Best to make the sauce first then cook the meat balls in the sauce.

Sauce

Dice onion, saute in pan with olive oil. Once transparent add garlic, stir for no more than thirty seconds  (garlic goes bitter when it burns so have the red wine ready). Deglaze with red wine (deglaze: technical term for lifting all the goodness and flavour from bottom of pan (put red wine in pan and stir)). Add all other ingredients. Taste and season (add salt and pepper). If the sauce is bitter you can add some sweetness (1stp brown sugar) to balance the flavours. Simmer on low.

(Side note: Rach and I didn’t use any sugar and it was quite sweet for us but just judge it each time you make it)

Note: the sauce will be thin, as it cooks the liquid evaporates and the sauce thickens, during this time the flavour also intensifies.

Meat balls

Dice onion as fine as possible (you could use a food processor use a food processor). Add all ingredients into a mixer with the dough hooks (just mix in bowl if you don’t have an electric mixer). Mix until well combined.

Roll meatballs into small 10c piece shaped balls in the palm of your hand. Place meat balls into sauce and simmer uncovered until sauce is thick and meatballs are cooked. I like to finish the sauce with parsley to as a nice freshness.

Good luck and please post any questions, comments or problems that you come across in the comments below! Remember cooking is fun and a great way to get the family together.