Beef Meatballs in Napoletana Sauce

Try always to use fresh ingredients when making a pasta sauce and add mushrooms for more texture.

Ingredients serve 8

1000 g beef mince

2 onions, finely chopped (250g)

2 tsp salt

1 tsp black ground pepper

25 fresh basil leaves finely chopped (2 tbls)

1 tbls fresh oregano leaves finely chopped

4 tbls finely chopped parsley

1 cup breadcrumbs (90g)

1 egg (50g)

Method

Preheat oven to 160ºC. Place all ingredients in a large bowl and combine well. Shape mixture into balls approx. 40 grams each. Place meatballs on a greased baking tray and bake in the oven for approx. 20 minutes. Put the meatballs in a saucepan with Napoletana sauce (see recipe below) and keep warm. Serve with pasta, chopped basil leaves and shredded parmesan cheese.

Napoletana Sauce ingredients

4 tbls olive oil

2 large onions finely chopped (500g)

2 finely chopped sticks celery

2 tsp minced garlic

4 tins whole peeled tomatoes (1600g)

200 g tomato paste

2 tbls freshly finely chopped oregano leaves

50 freshly finely chopped basil leaves (4 tbls)

2 tsp sea salt

½ tsp black ground pepper

2 tbls sugar

Method

Place oil, onion, celery, garlic in a large saucepan and sauté until glassy approx. 5 minutes. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, basil, salt, pepper and sugar. Stir well and simmer on low heat for approx. 35 minutes.

Note: This is a good base tomato sauce for pasta and pizza.