Yahoo Movies The go-to dinner that never fails to make everyone happy
Meatballs have been doing some heavy lifting in this house over the past few weeks. For some reason I can’t stop making them. It’s partly because we’re trying to eat through the freezer (which seems to be filled with those trusty 500g packets) in order to be able to fill it with ice for a New Year’s Eve party, but it’s also because they’re just a guaranteed win. Whenever I’ve run out of inspiration in the kitchen and can’t think of a thing to cook for dinner, it’s amazing how often meatballs end up being the answer. Simmered in tomato sauce, spiced and packed with currants, tumbled over rice, pasta, polenta or mashed potatoes, they are in that category of meals that never fail to make everyone happy.
I vividly remember the glee as a child when my mum would tell us it was spaghetti and meatballs for tea. I’d get a spoon and steal slurps of the tomato sauce as it blipped away on the hob when her back was turned. These days I find it’s just the kind of meal you want to fall into at the end of a long week.
The meatballs my mum makes (fluffy, packed with seasoning, and fantastically hefty – they’re roughly the size of a tennis ball) have my heart. This iteration makes a particularly light meatball thanks to the ricotta in the mix. I tend to use a high-fat mince and will sometimes mix beef and pork, which you could absolutely do rather than just doing straight beef as I have here. The lemon zest and fennel help to make them bright and full of flavour. A modest amount of tomato sauce with a little sherry vinegar, a few crispy crumbs, and you have a dinner worthy of sinking into on a Friday night.
