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Lemony Pork Meatballs with Pine Nuts

  • Author: Rachel Phipps
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 30 minutes
  • Total Time: 45 minutes
  • Yield: Serves 4
  • Category: Dinner

Description

These delicious, zingy pork meatballs in an anchovy-rich tomato sauce is great with wholemeal spaghetti or served with a bright green salad. They also freeze well so are great for batch cooking.


Ingredients

Scale
  • 400500g (roughly 1 lb, depends on your pack size!) Pork Mince
  • 1 Large Egg
  • Zest of 1 Lemon
  • Juice of 1/2 Lemon
  • 2 Large Garlic Cloves, crushed
  • 2 tbsp Pine Nuts, toasted and chopped
  • Sea Salt
  • Freshly Ground Black Pepper
  • 2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 4 Anchovy Fillets, finely chopped
  • 1 Red Chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
  • 4 tbsp Plain (All Purpose) Flour
  • Light Cooking Oil
  • 1 x 400g Can Tinned Tomatoes
  • 400ml Passata 
  • 140g (5 oz) Wholemeal Spaghetti
  • Small Handful Flat Leaf Parsley, roughly chopped

Instructions

  1. Combine the pork mince, egg, lemon juice, one of the crushed garlic cloves, chopped and toasted pine nuts and a generous amount of seasoning in a large bowl until the mixture is uniform (don’t worry, it is supposed to be quite wet!) but try not to scrunch the mince too much, as this will make tough meatballs! Roll the mixture out into roughly 20 walnut sized bowls and refrigerate until you need them.
  2. To make the sauce, gently fry the remaining crushed garlic clove, the chopped anchovy and the chilli in a large frying pan over a medium heat until the anchovy has melted and the garlic and chilli have softened.
  3. Add the tinned tomatoes and the passata to the pan. Bring the sauce to the boil, then bring it down to a very low simmer, leaving it to thicken.
  4. To finish the meatballs, roll them in the flour and fry them until just golden in another large frying pan over a medium high heat, with enough light cooking oil to just cover the bottom. As you remove the meatball from the pan, set them to drain on kitchen paper.
  5. Once all the meatballs have been browned, transfer them to the tomato sauce to cook through. Put the spaghetti to cook in a large pan of boiling, salted water for about 20 minutes.
  6. Serve the meatballs over the spaghetti, with a generous amount of chopped parsley on each bowl.