New Make/Bake 23 - Pork and Ricotta Meatballs

After a very hectic weekend celebrating my 29+1 Birthday I wanted an easy and relaxed meal to start the week. After a rummage in the freezer I noticed that I appear to have overstocked myself with pork mince (4 packs - eeek!) so thought I ought to do something to use them up. I also had a pot of ricotta with today's date so rather than follow a recipe, I thought I'd invent my own for once!

Pork and Ricotta Meatballs with a Creamy Tomato Sauce
Serves 2

Ingredients

For the Meatballs
250g Pork Mince
Large Handful of the following: Breadcrumbs, Grated Parmesan (I always keep some of both handy in the freezer) and freshly chopped Chives
2 garlic cloves, crushed (we love garlic so use less if you're not such a fan as us)
50g Ricotta Cheese
Seasoning

For the Creamy Tomato Sauce
Oil (I use an Olive Oil Spray)
1x400g tin of Chopped tomatoes
1/2 red onion finely diced
1 tablespoon Balsamic Vinegar
1 tsp Dried Oregano
1 tsp Tomato Purée
100g Ricotta Cheese
Seasoning

Method

1. Start by mixing all of the Meatball ingredients in a large bowl until combined and shape into large marble sized balls
2. Fry the red onion in a few sprays of Olive Oil until it softens
3. Add the meatballs and fry until brown (about 5 minutes) 

 
4. Add the tinned tomatoes and some water (I just rinsed the can out with some warm water)
5. Add the Dried Oregano, Tomato Purée and Balsamic Vinegar. Bring to the boil and the simmer for 10 - 15 minutes until the tomato mixture had reduced and the meatballs are cooked through.

6. Check the seasoning (I found mine was a little sharp so I added a pinch of sugar) and then stir in the Ricotta Cheese.
7. Once combined, serve with some fresh basil and cooked pasta of your choice - I had wholemeal spaghetti.

Considering I didn't follow a recipe I was actually quite pleased with it. It tasted lovely, the meatballs were really tender and juicy and the ricotta added depth to the tomato sauce. Yummy!

Make/Bake 6 and 7 : Baked Turkey Meatballs with Broccoli and Crispy Potatoes with White Chocolate and Berry Pudding

Sunday evening was a night for entertaining as we had M's mum over for dinner so I thought I'd attempt a brand new main course and pudding! I'm not sure if that was brave or stupid...

For my main course I made Baked Turkey Meatballs with Broccoli and Crispy Potatoes and then we had White Chocolate and Berry Pudding with custard.

I found that whenever I've made meatballs in the past I've struggled to get the seasoning right. So to try and stop that I fried off a tiny bit of the mixture before rolling the meat into balls and gave them a taste. Personally I found them a bit bland so I added a (large) dash of Worcestershire sauce, some extra garlic, seasoning and a handful of grated Parmesan to the meatballs. I  also browned them off in a pan before I baked them as sometimes I just think they look too anaemic if you just bake them in the oven. The potatoes were really similar to those I made on my NYE feast and I used skin-on Rooster potatoes (one of my favourite all rounders). I added some Asparagus Spears to the broccoli which I steamed as I sometimes get bored of just one vegetable. We also had garlic bread in a tin thanks to some "Jus-Roll" Garlic Pizza Bread which I bought a few weeks ago. Wow, it was lovely!! The only downside was that the juice with the meatballs was a little watery so I think I might try passata instead of a tin of cherry tomatoes if I made it again. It was also quite healthy due to using Turkey Mince and M's mum said she'd never had guessed and also asked for a copy of the recipe :)

Pudding was a variation of my favourite and most successful dessert - microwave sponge pudding. I vaguely followed the recipe in regards to using frozen berries, white chocolate chips and light brown sugar but I ignored the quantities. I  follow the same principal for my sponge cakes (as described earlier here) that is I weigh my eggs in their shells ( for this case I used 2 large ones) and then mix the same quantities of flour, butter and sugar. Once I'd mixed this all together then I folded in 300g of mixed frozen berries (my mix had cherries, grapes, raspberries and blackberries) and then 85g of white chocolate chips. I found it needed longer in the microwave than the recipe said (probably because I had more ingredients!) and cooked it for about 14 minutes but it was really delicious. The sponge did start to turn a slightly strange colour due to the fruit melting a bit but once it was drenched in custard you couldn't really tell.

No pictures I'm afraid but I definitely had a very full belly!!