Festive smoky fennel meatballs
A recipe for those in-between-days over the Christmas break. Festively red and green, these smoky meatballs and their sauce can be made ahead and then poached before serving. Perfect when you need a rest from all the main-event cooking.
Poaching your meatballs, as opposed to frying, makes for a much softer texture. The sauce here is made deliciously smoky with Halen Môn Oak Smoked Water. Serve with pasta, mash or this green cavelo nero polenta.
Scale up the sauce and the meatballs if you are feeding a crowd, this recipe is great as you can make both the meatballs and the sauce ahead of time and cook in batches if need be.
The tomato sauce is very simple to make, I urge you to buy the best tinned tomatoes you can afford. The sauce is a useful base for lots of other meals so why not make a double batch and freeze half for another day.
INGREDIENTS
Serves 4
For the meatballs
- 70g bread, crusts removed
- 80ml whole milk
- 500g beef mince
- 1 egg, beaten
- 40g parmesan, finely grated
- 1 tsp fennel seeds, toasted and crushed
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 tsp Halen Môn Pure Sea Salt
- ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
For the sauce
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 large onion, finely diced
- 1 tsp Halen Môn Pure Sea Salt
- 2 garlic cloves, bashed
- ½ tsp chilli flakes, optional
- 2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
- 1 -2 tsp sugar
- 2 tbsp Oak Smoked Water
For the green polenta
- 1 tsp Halen Môn Pure Sea Salt
- 300g cavelo nero
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and halved
- 300g quick cook polenta
METHOD
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Start by tearing the bread and pouring over the milk in a small bowl, leave to soak for 2 minutes. In a larger bowl mix together the mince, the egg and then add the soggy bread. Add the cheese, fennel seeds, garlic, salt and pepper. Mix everything together really well, best to use your hands for this. Once combined divide the mixture into 14 or 16 balls depending on your preferred size. Refrigerate to firm up while you make the sauce. The resting time is integral for the meatballs to firm up, as we are poaching not frying we need them to hold their shape when they are cooked.
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Start by heating the oil in a heavy bottomed saucepan or casserole dish on a medium heat. Add the onion and salt cook for 8 minutes stirring often. Add the garlic and cook for a minute more before adding the chilli flakes if you are using. Add the chopped tomatoes and leave to cook for a further 15 minutes, covered. Add a teaspoon of sugar and the smoked water and taste the sauce. Add more sugar if needed. Use a hand blender to blitz the sauce until smooth.
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To poach the meatballs, heat the sauce gently and add the meatballs to the sauce on a low heat to cook through for 15 minutes. The sauce needs to completely cover the meatballs and the heat needs to remain low. Leave the meatballs in the sauce with the heat off to rest for 5 minutes before serving.
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If you are making the green polenta. Bring a large pan of water to the boil, add a tsp of salt. Strip the kale from the stalks and all the leafy greens and the garlic into the boiling water and blanch for 4 minutes, before draining, reserving 200ml of the cooking water. Blitz the leaves and the garlic along with half the water, adding more if needed to loosen. In a medium pan cook the polenta as per packet instructions but deducting 200ml from the amount of water the instructions tell you to add. Half way through the cook time add the green liquid along with the butter, cheese and nutmeg. Season to taste.
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Serve in bowls topped with the meatballs and sauce and top with more cheese and basil leaves.
RECIPE + IMAGE: El Kemp
