members recipes

Nice, tasty meatballs, that are good for children aswell as adults. The meatballs are made lighter in texture by the addition of ricotta cheese to the mixture. The cheesy filling makes these especially good for children, who love how the cheese oozes out!!

Ingredients
Serves 4
For the meatballs:
500g pork sausagemeat
250g ricotta cheese
good pinch dried oregano
freshly ground black pepper

100g tallegio or mozarella cheese, cubed

2 tablesp plain flour, seasoned with salt - placed into a shallow dish

For the sauce:
olive oil
1 lge onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 teasp dried oregano
1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 tablesp tomato puree
salt & pepper to taste

Serve with pasta or boiled rice

Method
First, get the sauce cooking. Fry the onion and garlic gently in the olve oil until softened. Add the oregano along with the tomatoes, tomato puree and salt & pepper. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer very gently until the meatballs are cooked.

For the meatballs, mash the sausagemeat up in a bowl, until soft. Add the ricotta and oregano and mix togetehr well. Finally add the black pepper and mix well.
Form small balls, the size of walnuts and then flatten out into the palm of your hand. Into the centre of each pattie, place a cube of cheese, then fold the sausagemeat mixture back around the cheese, until back into meatball shapes.
When all the mixture has been used up, heat some oil in a frying pan.
Turn the heat to medium and then roll each meatball in the seasoned flour. Fry the meatballs in the oil, turning regularly for about 15 - 20 minutes, until all are cooked through. (You can also cook these in a moderate oven - 160 deg C, 325 deg F, Gas 4, for 30 minutes).
You can either serve the meatballs on top of pasta/rice, with the sauce drizzled over, or mix the meatballs into the sauce and serve straight on top of the pasta/rice - either way, they are delicious!