Classic Beef Meatballs with Chunky Red Italian Sauce

Add all of the ingredients into a mixing bowl and combine gently with your fingers. Gently roll the mixture into 60 gram portions and set them aside. 

Preheat the oven to 140°C.

Heat up a good drizzle of olive oil in an ovenproof frying pan over medium–high heat. Once the oil is hot, add the meatballs, taking care not to overcrowd the pan. You can do this in stages. Constantly move the pan in a circling motion. This will help the balls roll around and brown evenly. Do this for several minutes until the balls form a nice brown crust.

Once all meatballs are browned, add all the meatballs back into the frying pan and place in the dry oven for 12 minutes. This will complete the cooking process. Serve while still hot. Makes 24 Meatballs.

Chunky Red Italian Sauce

Start by heating up a drizzle of olive oil in a frying pan over high heat until it starts to smoke. Add the fresh tomato and stir around the pan until they take on some colour and begin to break down. You need to get the pan very hot so that the natural sugars in the tomato come out the moment they make contact with the hot oil.

Add the onion and a pinch of salt. Cook while stirring for 3 minutes, then add the garlic and tomato paste. Once the onion has been partially cooked, add the tinned tomato, reduce the heat to low and cook for at least 1 hour or until reduced by around half.

Season with salt and lots of pepper, and add the torn basil leaves at the end. Finish with another good drizzle of olive oil.

You can use any variety of fresh tomato – feel free to leave the skins on as this all adds to the texture of the sauce. Makes 1.4 kilograms. This warming sauce can be made in bulk and used across a variety of dishes.