Bill Granger's braised pork meatballs

This recipe comes from Bill Granger's latest book 'Bill's Italian Food' published by HarperCollins. It also featured in the August 2013 edition of delicious magazine.

I like Bill Granger, or rather his cooking; relatively simple food that tastes and looks great. And he seems to have a wonderful life of travelling around to different countries, immersing himself with the local cuisine and writing cooking books about his (and his family's) experiences. How cool would that be? My dream job I think.

I have spoken before of my love of meatballs. They are high on my list of easy comfort food, popular with big and little people, tasty and relatively healthy. I would cook some sort of meatball at least once a week. I like Italian style with a tomato-based sauce, or chicken meatballs in an Asian-style soup, or Turkish-style lamb meatballs with yogurt and lots of herbs. The possibilities are endless really.



These pork meatballs were so tasty. I especially liked the sultanas, pinenuts and nutmeg, which gave the pork a lovely richness and flavour. I added a splash of red wine vinegar to the tomato sauce towards the end of the cooking just to give it a bit of a lift. And I also like the idea of making the meatballs large enough that just one is a serving.

Bill suggests serving these with some green beans dressed with a vinaigrette. We didn't have any green beans, so we had a grated zucchini salad instead. Nice fresh flavours and pretty colours too. You could serve with some sauteed potatoes to soak up the yummy sauce or with some crusty sauce. Or even some pasta if you like. There are lots of ways to serve these and all would satisfy.

What you'll need

Serves 4 - 6 people

1 kg pork mince
30g sultanas, roughly chopped
30g pine nuts, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese, grated
1 tablespoon dried marjoram
Large pinch ground nutmeg
Zest and juice of one lemon
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
45g fresh white breadcrumbs
1 egg white, lightly beaten
60ml olive oil
300ml chicken stock
800g canned chopped tomatoes (approximately 2 cans)
250g cherry tomatoes
3 bay leaves
Salt and pepper to season

What to do

In a large bowl, place the mince, sultanas, pine nuts, marjoram, nutmeg, lemon zest and breadcrumbs. Using your hands, mix the ingredients very well. Add the egg white and mix further until very well combined.

Wash your hands, keep them wet and divide the mixture into fist-sized balls (about 12). Using your wet hands, roll the mixture into smooth balls. Place on a plate and put into the fridge to chill for about 30 minutes. The chilling ensures that the meatballs don't fall apart when you cook them.

In a large pan heat half the oil over medium heat. Add some of the meatballs and cook them, turning until they are brown all over. This will take about 5 minutes. Remove these meatballs and set aside. Add the remaining oil and brown the remaining meatballs. Once all meatballs are browned and set aside, drain the oil from the pan. 

Place the pan back on high heat. Add the chicken stock to the pan and simmer, using a spoon to gather up all the bits of cooked meatballs from the pan bottom. Simmer for about 5 minutes until reduced a little. Now return the meatball s to the pan, and add the canned tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and the bay leaves. 

Stir the tomato sauce carefully around the meatballs to combine everything. Now place a tight-fitting lid onto the pan (or cover with some alfoil) and cook for 30 minutes over low heat, until the meatballs are cook through. Remove from the heat, remove the lid/foil and pour in the vinegar and lemon juice.

Serve to the table with some extra Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.