Sammy’s Venetian meatballs

These meatballs are inspired by Sammy's trip to a restaurant in Venice that served aromatic, juicy meatballs. She now serves them at Frank's Deli in Waverley in meatball sandwiches and sugo for takeaway and are hugely popular with the local customers.

Sammy’s Venetian meatballs Credit: Kitti Gould

• serves

  4

• prep

  25 minutes

• cook

  2:15 hours

• difficulty

  Easy

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Ingredients

Meatballs

• 500 g veal and pork mince
• 350 g ricotta
• 150 g parmesan, grated
• 100 g fresh breadcrumbs
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 2 eggs
• ½ bunch parsley, finely chopped
• ½ bunch basil, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp fennel seeds
• 1 brown onion, finely diced
• salt and white pepper
• milk

Simple sugo

• 800 g San Marzano tomato puree
• 150 g butter
• 1 large onion, peeled and diced
• 1 stem basil
• salt and sugar, to taste

To serve

• sugo 
• crusty baguette
• Parmigiano Reggiano, grated
• basil leaves

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 200˚C.
2. For the sugo, cook tomato, butter and onion in an oven-proof pot, covered, for 2 hours in a 150˚C oven. Blitz with a stick blender to puree. Season to taste with basil, salt and sugar.
3. For the meatballs, combine all ingredients in a bowl and add a dash of milk over the breadcrumbs to soften them. Mix until very smooth. It should be soft and easy to mix the ingredients together well. Season to taste with white pepper and salt.
4. Roll the meatballs to about 45 g, or a small ice cream scoop's worth. Wet your hand slightly to help roll the balls easily.
5. Line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper, then place all the meatballs on the tray, don't worry about leaving too much space in between.
6. Bake for 15 minutes until lightly golden. You don't want to overcook them, as you risk getting rid of all that lovely moisture from the ricotta.
7. Toss the baked meatballs through a sugo and serve with crusty bread, parmesan and basil leaves.

 

Photography by Kitti Gould.

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Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.

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