Italian Beef Meatballs in Sauce with Pasta

Ingredients

• 300g extra lean beef mince
• 1 Tsp olive oil
• 2 small onions
• 80g celery
• 9g garlic
• 400g tinned chopped tomatoes
• 20g sun dried tomato paste
• 8g soft brown sugar
• 1g dried oregano
• 225g fusilli

Want to try different ingredients?

You can add this recipe to My Recipes in WLR and swap ingredients to make it perfect for you . . .

Take a free trial

Method

1. Pound the lean beef mince with pestle and mortar (or dish with something flat ended and heavy) until it makes a paste (sticks well together... this stops the meatball falling apart, well worth the effort).
2. Next spray a non-stick fry-pan with a fine mist of olive oil.
3. Chop the onion and celery finely and fry gently (you want it transluscent and golden, not brown).
4. Chop or mash 2 cloves of the garlic and add to the pan. Fry for another 2 mins, then take off the heat.
5. In your liquidiser (or large jug/bowl if you have the handheld version) put the tinned chopped tomatoes, sundried tomato paste, brown sugar and a little water. Add the onion/celery/garlic mix and give it all a good whizz. That's your sauce.
6. To the pounded beef mince add 1 garlic clove, finely chopped, and the oregano.
7. Mix well and form into balls.
8. In the now clean fry-pan put a fine spray of olive oil.
9. Fry the meatballs on a medium to high heat, gradually browning on all sides. As soon as they have enough colour, throw the sauce in the pan and turn the heat right down to a gently simmer.
10. Taste and season with black pepper and salt to taste.
11. Cook the pasta as per packet instruction.

Serve and enjoy!