{"id":162,"date":"2011-10-12T18:20:09","date_gmt":"2011-10-12T17:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ginnyang.com\/?p=162"},"modified":"2012-07-30T14:41:23","modified_gmt":"2012-07-30T13:41:23","slug":"meatballs-in-a-heavy-tomato-sauce-with-soft-polenta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/?p=162","title":{"rendered":"Meatballs in a Heavy Tomato Sauce with Soft Polenta"},"content":{"rendered":"

I made this particular recipe from the Top Chef cookbook a couple of days ago but through work commitments I just haven’t had time to write it up properly.\u00a0 It could also be that this made me so full I could barely move for three days… but I’m sticking to my work commitments story.\u00a0 The sauce for these meatballs is incredible!\u00a0 I simply could not stop eating it.\u00a0 I realise a few people who have scanned ahead to the ingredients list will be saying “but you used canned tomatoes!?!” but to be honest some good quality canned tomatoes can be just as good as fresh ones.\u00a0 Particularly if you are going to use the aforementioned Beef Tomatoes.\u00a0 If you have no clue what I am on about, read my earlier chili bacon cheese burger recipe<\/a>.\u00a0 If you skip the dirt cheap supermarket brand canned tomatoes you will probably find that there is more flavour in the canned type than in a lot of the fresh ones.\u00a0 Unless you are willing to spend large amounts of money on small, sweet and very tasty\u00a0pomodoro or sundream tomatoes or perhaps the larger Jubilee tomatoes, you’re not going to be able to make a better sauce.<\/p>\n

I’ll admit, the list of ingredients is fairly long and the prep and cooking time isn’t exactly short.\u00a0 But the end product is definitely worth it.\u00a0 The meatballs are moist and tasty while the sauce is rich, tangy and heavy without being over-powering.\u00a0 The Polenta adds some texture and goes well with the sauce.\u00a0 You could use pasta but that wouldn’t be very imaginative.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ingredients (Serves 6-8):<\/strong><\/p>\n

500g Beef Mince<\/p>\n

500g Pork Mince<\/p>\n

50ml Double Cream<\/p>\n

1 Large Egg<\/p>\n

1 tbps Madeira<\/p>\n

4 Whole Peppercorns<\/p>\n

1 tsp Fennel Seeds<\/p>\n

1 tsp Sea Salt<\/p>\n

1\/4 tsp Ground Cinnamon<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tomato Sauce:<\/strong><\/p>\n

2 x 400g Canned Tomatoes<\/p>\n

250ml Chicken Stock<\/p>\n

250ml Beef Stock<\/p>\n

3 Sticks of Celery<\/p>\n

1 Large Carrot<\/p>\n

1 Large Onion<\/p>\n

2 Cloves of Garlic<\/p>\n

1 Sprig Greek Basil<\/p>\n

1 Sprig Thyme<\/p>\n

2 Bay Leaves<\/p>\n

50ml Madeira<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Soft Polenta:<\/strong><\/p>\n

See Recipe<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Method:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 Grind the peppercorns and<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 Loosen the beef and pork mince and then add into a large bowl with the rest of the ingredients.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Gently combine all the ingredients and then roll into evenly sized balls.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan until it shimmers and then shallow\u00a0fry the meatballs until they turn golden.\u00a0 Fry them in batches to prevent them steaming instead of frying.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0 Allow the meatballs to dry on some paper towels<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tomato Sauce:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 Brunoise the celery, carrot and onion and fry in a large heavy bottomed pan with some olive oil until they begin to soften.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 Crush and roughly chop the garlic and add to the pan.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0 Next add the canned\u00a0tomatoes and Madeira along with all the herbs and bring to a simmer.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 Add the stocks, stir and let the sauce reduce a little.\u00a0 Add salt and pepper to taste.<\/p>\n

5.\u00a0 Add in the meatballs, cover slightly and allow to cook gently for at least\u00a03 hours.<\/p>\n

6.\u00a0 Remove the bay leaves and check seasoning.\u00a0 Serve over the Soft Polenta and sprinkle with some Pecorino or Parmesan cheese.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Tips:<\/strong><\/p>\n

You can make this the previous night and reheat it the next day.\u00a0 It will keep for a few days and the sauce will taste even better.\u00a0 Add a little water if the sauce is looking too thick and gently reheat for about 30mins.<\/p>\n

When making the sauce, fry the onions first and allow them to become translucent before adding the celery and carrot.<\/p>\n

Try not to pack the meatballs into tight balls – just mix them enough to ensure they stick together.\u00a0 Keeping them loose will allow them to soak up more sauce and it won’t just feel like a mouth full of meat when you bite into them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I made this particular recipe from the Top Chef cookbook a couple of days ago but through work commitments I just haven’t had time to write it up properly.\u00a0 It could also be that this made me so full I could barely move for three days… but I’m sticking to my work commitments story.\u00a0 The sauce for these meatballs is incredible!\u00a0 I simply could not stop eating it.\u00a0 I realise a few people who have[…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[37,5,19],"tags":[10,24,11],"class_list":["post-162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main","category-recipes","category-west","tag-beef","tag-polenta","tag-pork"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/IMAG0306.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1PTCG-2C","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=162"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210,"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions\/210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ginnyang.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}