First off it's the meatballs. We're never 100% sure who's in and who's out so I always make enough for everybody as they freeze really well as long as properly defrosted prior to cooking. Really important with this recipe as it contains pork mince as well as steak mince!
Finely chop one large or a couple of small onions and sweat on a low heat in a little oil. About half way though add some chopped garlic. I've used four cloves but you can adjust to taste. Remember, though, that there will be garlic in the sauce as well. When soft set aside to cool.
To a large bowl add 500g each of pork and steak mince. You could use more or less of either but I think this mix gives a good balance of taste from the steak and moist fattiness from the pork. Add the softened onion and garlic, a finely chopped chilli or two, a handful of chopped flat leaf parsley, one or two (to taste) teaspoons of paprika, salt, pepper and an egg yolk. You could sling in a few more herbs or spices if you wanted to. Ground cumin and coriander seed work well or you could easily substitute coriander for the parsley or have a mix of both.
Mix together well using the flesh-coloured spoons at the end of your arms.
Form into balls. I got twelve, more or less snooker ball sized, balls from this amount of mixture. Cover in cling film and chill in the fridge for a minimum of 30 minutes. These can be prepared in the morning for either lunch or supper or even the day before.
While your balls are in the fridge you can get on with the sauce. Although how one can be expected to concentrate fully in those circumstances Heaven knows!
Quick note...this dish can either be cooked on the hob or in the oven so whatever pan you make the sauce in needs to reflect which method you choose. I'm using an ovenproof frying pan with a lid which will do either.
In a little oil soften an onion; adding chopped garlic about half way though. I've used a couple of cloves as we love it but remember there is garlic in the meatballs as well. I'm adding a few leftover baby plum tomatoes because they looked all forlorn in the fridge but these aren't essential. When nice and soft add approximately 400g of chopped tomatoes and the same quantity of water, a glug of red wine and any dried or chopped herbs you care to use. I'm using a little chopped sage and oregano from the garden. If you like a really tomatoey sauce, as we do, add a squeeze of tomato puree otherwise leave it out. This is a very forgiving dish and not even remotely traditional so you can play around with it all you want. A few sliced mushrooms would work or if you want to make this a camper van one pot dish bung in enough bite sized chunks of potato to feed all and serve it as a kind of stew. Less washing up too!
Season with salt and pepper. I'm adding another teaspoon of paprika at this point but enough will leach out of the meatballs during cooking if you don't want yours to be too punchy.
Put the lid on and bring to the boil then uncover and simmer on the hob for about 20-30 minutes to let the flavours jiggle about a bit and for the sauce to reduce a little..
Next you need to brown the meatballs and get them in the pan. In a little oil do them a few at a time in a separate pan and add them to the sauce. Deglaze the pan with a little more red wine and add that too. If you are cooking this camper van style you might not have enough room to do the two pans at once. In that case take the sauce off the heat and add the browned meatballs as above. It's easy enough to bring back up to heat afterwards.
Covered and in 180* oven this will take about 30 minutes to cook. The same on a low heat on the hob. In either case check the meatballs are cooked right through. I always turn them over halfway though to keep them nice and moist.
Flattened instead of balled these make great burgers for the barbie as well!
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