Monday 21 February 2011

Red & Green Meatballs

When I stared into my bereft vegetable drawer while I clutched at a bag of minced pork, my mind grew blank and I thought about getting a takeaway. My thriftiness kicked in though, and a plan was formulated to bring together the odds and sods languishing in my fridge. Bedraggled parsley leaves, an abundance of coriander stalks, truly they should have been destined for the bin. Instead, along with a sorry wrinkled green chilli they got blitzed right up with some fruity extra virgin olive oil. A clove of garlic added spiciness and pungency, complementing the sweet flavours of the tomato sauce and the aniseed hit of the fennel seed within the meatballs. It was a vibrant dish and needed only some crust bread to mop the sauce up with.


Red & Green Meatballs

Serves 2

300gr minced pork
A handful of breadcrumbs
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 white onion
1 tin of peeled plum tomatoes
2 tsp tomato puree
A handful of parsley leaves
A bunch of coriander stalks (or leaves)
1 green chilli
1 spring onion
1 clove of garlic
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Heat up some oil and add the onion, diced, frying until softened and translucent. Add the tinned tomatoes and the tomato puree and simmer. Meanwhile, toast the fennel seeds in a dry pan and grind in a mortar and pestle. Add to the minced pork along with some salt, pepper, and the breadcrumbs. Work into golf sized balls. Using a blender or a stick whizzer process the tomato sauce so that it's smooth. Add the meatballs, cover, and cook for 40 minutes, taking the lid off halfway through.

Meanwhile, add the parsley, coriander, garlic and olive oil to a blender or food processor. Add a little salt and pepper and whizz into a dressing.

To serve, drizzle the green sauce over the tomato meatballs.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

These look so good!

Ginger Jar said...

Pork meatballs with fennel seeds in, always a winner! GJ

Crumpeats said...

Appreciating the frugle-ness! I have some minced pork left over..think this might be necessary!

Unknown said...

isn't 'back of the fridge' cooking simply the best? It can be inspiring sometimes to make do with what you have... and look at the masterpiece you came up with? ...without being accused of total self-promotion, i'm running a challenge on my blog which is both similar and yet the complete opposite of this, which is called 'random recipes' and challenges you to cook, at random from all your cookbooks... I like to think it opens us up as cooks to set yourself some kind of challenge every so often... anyway, here's the link, join in if you can...http://belleaukitchen.blogspot.com/2011/02/belleau-kitchen-random-recipe-challenge.html

tori said...

That's a darn sight more creative than many of my 'what can we chuck together efforts'- which inexplicably, always seem to contain frozen peas.... am also loving the inclusion of the fennel seeds...

Unknown said...

I love meat balls and this looks like a great solution to "back of the fridge cooking". Now what to do with my celery, cherry tomatoes and mince beef??

PDH said...

Sounds like a great pre-pay day meal to me! My absolute favourite POV food still has to be marmite pasta... saved me from starvation many times I have to say :^)

Dan said...

Inspired. I love thrown together dishes like this, and its always fantastic to read how other people do it when faced with leftover ingredients. Looks frigging tasty.

roym said...

this look fantastic. i am going to buy these ingredients just so i can make it!