Recipe: lamb meatballs in a tomato sauce (From York Press)

Recipe: lamb meatballs in a tomato sauce

1:41pm Saturday 3rd September 2011 in Too Many Cooks

A NEW cookery book landed on my desk this week extolling the virtues of slow cooking, not that I needed telling, as regular readers of this column will all too aware.

The Slow Cook Book by Heather Whinney, priced £16.99 (www.dk.com), is packed full of mouth-watering slow cook recipes, from tasty pot roasts to fragrant curries.

My kids just love meatballs, so this one particularly caught my eye and proved a big hit when it was dished up with pasta, but it could also be served with couscous or mashed potato. If your children aren’t keen on spicy food, you could leave out the chilli and Tabasco sauce, but the paprika gives the meatballs a lovely smoky flavour and really makes the dish.

RECIPE

For the meatballs:

Half onion, chopped
One chilli, deseeded and roughly chopped
Two garlic cloves, peeled
100g chorizo sausage, chopped
500g minced lamb
Good pinch of paprika
Salt and black pepper
2 tbsp plain flour
4 tbsp olive oil

For the tomato sauce:

One onion, finely chopped
Three garlic cloves, finely chopped
120ml red wine
Two 400g cans of whole tomatoes
One tsp of paprika
Splash of Tabasco sauce

METHOD

Pre-heat slow cooker.

To make meatballs, whiz the onion, chorizo, chilli and garlic in food processer until finely chopped.

Tip into a bowl and mix with the lamb, paprika and season. Roll the mixture into small balls and dust each one in a little flour.

Heat the oil in a pan and cook meatballs until brown and set aside.

To make the sauce, cook the onion in the pan used to brown the meatballs until soft. Stir in the garlic and wine and let it bubble. Pour in the tomatoes, bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer. Stir in the paprika and the Tabasco sauce and season.

Transfer the sauce and meatballs to the slow cooker and cook on a low setting for six to eight hours, or about three hours if on high.