Preparation time: 10 minutes | Cooking time: 45 minutes | Serves 4
Ingredients
For the sauce
2 red onions, roughly chopped
1 garlic bulb
1 tbsp cumin seeds
8 sprigs thyme
600g Roma tomatoes
1 red pepper
100ml olive oil
Sea salt, to taste
Ingredients
500g pork mince
Zest of one orange
1 tsp smoked paprika
2 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
200g feta/li>
Parmesan to serve
How to make it
To make the sauce, place all the ingredients in a large baking tray together with 60ml olive oil, reserving half of the thyme for the meatballs. Season well with sea salt. Preheat an oven to 220 °C and roast for 20 minutes, or until soft and slightly charred.
Blitz to form a thick puréed sauce and keep aside.
Mix all the ingredients for the meatballs together, adding the leftover thyme. Shape into meatballs of 5 cm in diameter.
Heat the rest of the olive oil in a large pan or a casserole pot, and fry off the meatballs in batches until well-browned on at least two sides.
Add the tomato sauce to the pan and reduce the heat. Leave to simmer for 15 – 20 minutes (add some water to the pan should the sauce become too dry). Break the feta into chunks and cook for another 5 minutes.
Liberally garnish with parmesan and serve straight from the pan with crusty bread or orecchiette pasta, fresh baby salad leaves and a glass of Warwick Professor Pitch Black.
