Pasta with Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

Servings: 6

Level of difficulty: Intermediate
Preparation Time: 25 minutes
Cooking Time: 45 minutes
Ingredients
For the meatballs
250g pork, minced
250g beef, minced
1 egg
2 tbsp Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tsp Oregano
3 tbsp breadcrumbs
1 pinch Pepper
1 tsp Salt
For the tomato sauce
1 onion
2 garlic clove
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tbsp Butter
1 tbsp Olive oill (not extra-virgin)
700g tomato passata (sieved tomatoes)
1 pinch Sugar
1 pinch salt and pepper
100ml full cream milk
Method
To make the meatballs, just put everything in a large bowl, and then, using your hands, mix to combine, before shaping into small balls.
Place the meatballs on baking sheets or plates that you have lined with clingfilm, and put in the fridge as you finish them.
To make the tomato sauce, put the onion, garlic and oregano into a food processer and blitz to a pulp.
Heat the butter and oil in a deep wide pan, then scrape the onion-garlic mix into it and cook over a low-medium heat for about 10 minutes. Don’t let the mixture catch, just let it become soft.
Add the bottle of passata and then fill the empty bottle half full with cold water. Add this to the pan with the pinch of sugar, some salt and pepper and cook for about 10 minutes. The tomato sauce will appear thin at this stage, but don’t worry as it will thicken a little later.
Stir in the milk, and then drop the meatballs in one by one. Don’t stir the pan until the meatballs have turned from pink to brown as you don’t want to break them up.
Cook everything for about 20 minutes, with the lid only partially covering it. At the end of cooking time, check the seasoning as you may want more salt and a grind or two more of pepper.