Spanish meatballs in tomato sauce

(serves 6-8)

The first time I made this dish was for a Spanish-themed dinner party for 16 people, so this dish was great because it could be put into the thermal cooker and just left to slow cook to perfection whilst I had to organise everything else. The different minces help to add depth to the meaty flavour and also helps to keep the meatballs soft and moist. 

Now I like this dish because I can put it in the thermal cooker in the morning and come home to dinner that I can just reheat, and I can also mix it up over a couple of nights.

Prep time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 3-4hrs (but just leaving it on the stove/in slow cooker)


Ingredients:
Meatballs
300g beef mince
300g pork and veal mince
2 tsp lemon juice
1 small onion
4 garlic cloves
4 T parsley (about 4 sprigs)
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ground cloves
60g dried breadcrumbs
2 eggs
plain flour (for dusting)


Tomato sauce:
250mL white wine
2 cans (800g) canned tomatoes
1 small onion
4 garlic cloves
2 tsp paprika
2 bay leaves


Method:
1. Finely chop the onion, garlic and parsley.
2. Put all the ingredients for the meatballs together in a big mixing bowl, and mix in with your hands!

3. Roll the mixture into large meatballs, approx 5cm in diameter

4. Gently roll the meatballs in the flour mixture and dust off.

Ambitious timer-shot without hands to capture dusting off!

5. Leave the meatballs in the fridge for 10-30minutes.
6. For the tomato sauce, finely chop onions and garlic, and saute in pot with 1 T oil over medium heat.
7. Add in white wine and canned tomatoes and bring to the boil.

8. Add the paprika and bay leaves and continue simmering.
9. Take meatballs out of fridge and pan-fry until seared on the outside.

10. Add meatballs to tomato mixture, and bring to the boil.
11. Put in slow cooker or thermal cooker and leave for 2-5 hours (depending on how much time you have). NB. The longer it's left in there, the longer the juices of the meat will infuse into the tomato sauce!
12. After you take it out of the thermal cooker or slow cooker, bring it back to the boil before serving.
13. Serve as a tapas at a dinner party, or with pasta (remove meatballs first and mix in cooked pasta with the tomato sauce), or serve as a main with salad on the side.

Serve as a tapas!

Serve with Oyster Mushroom salad and toasted sourdough

Serve with linguine